


Vampires, Werewolves and other love stories

by jjabajas



Category: (여자)아이들 | (G)I-DLE
Genre: F/F, Of course we're doing a Twilight AU, Vampires, Werewolves, dumdi dumdi gave me Thoughts and then this happened, of course
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:14:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25788667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjabajas/pseuds/jjabajas
Summary: “Minnie’s here?” She asked in an icy tone.“Y-yeah…”“Funny. You didn’t mention that when you told me to come.”“I just thought you could use a vacation.”“A vacation with my ex?”—There’s nothing more annoying than living forever and having to run into your werewolf ex all the time.
Relationships: Cho Miyeon/Minnie Nicha Yontararak, Jeon Soyeon/Song Yuqi, Seo Soojin/Yeh Shuhua
Comments: 88
Kudos: 391





	1. Woodstock (in the desert), part 1 - 1975

**_Chapter 1: Woodstock (in the desert), part 1 - 1975_ **

“Your room’s number 66,” the old clerk said, holding out a key.

“Ah…” Miyeon had the brief thought about just how fitting that number was—then she took the key. “Thanks.”

“Continental breakfast 9 to 11.”

“Okay.” She wouldn’t be needing it anyway.

“And there might be some curious folk rolling through here every now and then,” he added, gesturing with his shotgun like it was second nature. “Don’t be too worried, they’re harmless. We just attract those kind of people. It’s the location.”

“What kind of people?” Miyeon asked as she placed her purse back in her bag. She’d gone for a matching polka-dot outfit today. It was a bit more European in style than American, and that’s probably why the clerk thought she was some frail damsel tourist who’d never step foot in America before. He’d be very surprised if he knew she’s lived here since before the country even existed.

“Ain’t nothing wrong with them, they just dress weird.”

“Like me?” She interjected with a practiced smile.

“No, not like you, ma’am. You’re…” His eyes started roaming and that’s when Miyeon decided that it was time to go.

“Thanks for the room key,” she said sharply, already walking towards the door. “I’ll return it when I leave.”

“Enjoy your stay, ma’am.”

She stepped boldly out of the motel’s front office and into the blazing sunlight. She’d forgotten for a blissful moment just how hot American deserts could get.

And almost immediately, her skin started to glow with an inhuman sheen. Give it a few more minutes and she’d be absolutely sparkling. She’d normally take measures to cover her skin from the sun, but not this time. She was officially on vacation and she wasn’t going to worry about pretending to be human.

That’s why she was thankful that her friend had chosen such an out-of-the-way motel. Maybe she’d even try to get a tan while she was here. She wondered what the clerk would say when he saw her out in the sun lit up like a Christmas tree. Just another one of those curious folk perhaps.

And speaking of curious folk…

Miyeon turned towards the guest rooms and sauntered her way over to the door marked 104.

She didn’t knock.

Instead, she announced in a voice so quiet no human would hear, “I hope you’re alone in there.”

Barely half a second later and the door clicked open.

She pushed her way in to see that Soojin was already back on her bed, covered in pillows and going through a stack of LPs. The TV was turned on to some old black-and-white western with unbelievably terrible accents.

Miyeon could only imagine how bored Soojin was.

“Aren’t you supposed to be living it up in some kind of love nest right now?” The older girl asked as she set her bag down and looked around the small room. “Where’s Shuhua?”

“Working,” Soojin tersely replied.

“Why?”

“Because she wants to practice being around humans more,” she sighed. “But nobody ever comes out here so it’s basically just her and that creepy old clerk.”

“Maybe she’ll eat him if she gets too bored. Or maybe I will.”

Soojin snorted in laughter and shook her head. “No eating humans allowed.”

“Fine, fine.”

Miyeon slipped out of her high heels and wriggled her way onto the way too soft bed. She stopped momentarily when she suddenly realized, “I’m not lying in your love nest, am I?”

“Yah! There’s no love nest! You think you wouldn’t smell it as soon as you came in here?” Soojin whined.

“Fine, fine,” Miyeon repeated with a chuckle and finally settled down beside the other girl. She couldn’t help but tease her one last time though. “Is it because you still can’t stand her scent?”

“Do you want to die?”

Miyeon burst out laughing at the annoyed look on Soojin’s face. “Not today, my SooSoo.” But now that the topic had come up, she was curious how her friend had been dealing in that department since she’d last seen her. “So it got better then? I was right?”

Soojin rolled her eyes, but reluctantly replied. “You were right.”

“And what about all her other… wolf problems?”

“There haven’t been a lot of problems, honestly.”

“Oh?” Miyeon grabbed one of the LPs closest to her and perfunctorily looked it over.

“Yeah. Minnie thinks it’s because—” Soojin suddenly cut herself off and her eyes widened at her little slip up.

Miyeon, on the other hand, was frozen solid.

She realized that the LP in her hands had cracked and broken off where she was holding it. Such a fragile invention. She imagined breaking Soojin’s TV instead. Maybe even this stupid bed while she was at it too.

“Minnie’s here?” She asked in an icy tone.

“Y-yeah…”

“Funny. You didn’t mention that when you told me to come.”

“I just thought you could use a vacation.”

“A vacation with my ex?” Miyeon finally turned her gaze on the fidgety Soojin. “Not very relaxing, I don’t think.”

“How was I supposed to know that you two were broken up again?” Soojin defended herself, a look of exasperation on her face. “You always complain about her even when you’re together—it’s all the same.”

“Why don’t you ask Kim Minnie, your new best friend?”

“Ah, seriously…”

“Seems like she’s always around Shuhua these days, you must’ve gotten pretty close.”

Soojin slapped her leg with enough strength to flatten a grown human adult. As it was, all Miyeon felt was a slight tingle. “They’re in the same pack, what am I supposed to do? She’s helping Shuhua work on her control.”

“Shuhua’s over two hundred years old, she’s not a young pup anymore,” Miyeon muttered.

“Cut her some slack, she grew up in the middle of nowhere Alaska,” Soojin defended her girlfriend.

“Fine,” Miyeon sighed.

She pushed herself off the bed, needing to move now with all the restless energy that had suddenly filled her.

“But really, I thought you two were doing fine lately. What happened?” Soojin curiously inquired.

Miyeon scoffed. “Woodstock happened.”

“Ah… Is this going to be like your Salem story?”

“Don’t bring that back up,” Miyeon snapped, raising her hand in warning.

But Soojin just ignored her and continued on, “Well, if it’s anything like that, then you’ll probably be back together again by the end of the night.”

“What makes you think I’m even staying that long?”

“Stop overreacting.” Soojin rolled her eyes.

“Minnie and I… no, we’re over. Done.”

“Yes, yes...”

“I’m serious.”

“You know, I think I get the pattern now,” Soojin smiled as she pieced it together. “You stay together for a few years, maybe ten. Then some stupid thing happens at some history-defining event and you run away to Europe—”

“I didn’t run away—”

“Then you come back after a while—it’s usually because I call you, right? But that’s not the real reason you come back, is it?”

“There’s no _real_ reason—”

“It’s because you miss her. And then almost the exact day—the _exact same day_ you come back, you run into her. Then you fight and fuck and then do the whole thing all over again. Every time.”

Miyeon crossed her arms and glared defiantly down at the younger girl. “We should’ve never become friends.”

“I’m your only non-coven vampire friend. You’d be drowning in politics if it wasn’t for me.”

“Instead I’m being tortured in a motel room in the middle of the desert,” Miyeon pointed out, huffing at the mistreatment she was currently facing. Soojin just rolled her eyes and went back to looking at her LPs.

“Might as well get it out of your system now before tonight,” the younger vamp suggested.

“Get _what_ out of my system?”

“Tonight’s a full moon so Minnie’s going to take Shuhua out on a run so they can shift and howl at the moon like a bunch of crazies.”

Miyeon could picture that scene all too clearly. She’d been around Minnie for enough full moons to know just how noisy she could get. “Of course.”

“I say you go do your Minnie thing now before night falls.”

And Miyeon was all set to deny, deny, deny all over again. But the reality of the situation was… Soojin was right. If she stayed in the motel (which she was definitely planning on doing despite her previous claims), then sooner or later she’d run into Minnie. It was actually almost a miracle that they hadn’t met each other yet. They had a sort of sixth sense for that sort of thing.

And now that she thought about it, Miyeon _had_ picked up on a familiar wet dog smell when she’d arrived earlier. She’d assumed it was Shuhua—and some of it probably was. But those two wolves had started smelling more and more like each other ever since they became a pack. What she’d naively thought of as Shuhua was probably actually Minnie. Especially the scent lingering around that silver trailer parked out front…

“Is that her trailer?” Miyeon sauntered over to the windows and reached for the blinds.

“Mhm,” Soojin hummed in confirmation, focus already shifted back to her stupid TV western.

“She would…” Miyeon opened the blinds to take a peek at the strange vehicle—

And ended up looking straight into the eyes of one Kim Minnie.

She was sitting on the stoop of the open trailer door, leaning back on her arms, staring straight at their motel room window. That stupid smile stretched across her face.

Miyeon narrowed her eyes in annoyance, but Minnie’s smile only grew.

“I’ll be back,” Miyeon muttered to Soojin. But she doubted that the younger vamp was even surprised at that point.

With a deep sigh, Miyeon yanked open the room door and stepped out into the sunlight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dumdi dumdi made me do it lol  
> listen. if you don't think miyeon's a vampire you're lying to yourself  
> as always, drop your thoughts and feelings down below :)
> 
> (also come shout at me on the bird if you want (@jjabajas))


	2. Woodstock (on the road to Woodstock), part 2 - 1969

**_Chapter 2: Woodstock (on the road to Woodstock), part 2 - 1969_ **

“I seeee the bad moon rising!” Minnie shouted out along with the radio. “I seeee trouble on the way!” She threw her head back as their convertible sped down the highway, slapping her hand on the car door in time with the music. “I see earthquakes and lightning! I see bad times today!”

Miyeon glanced over and smiled at the sight of her girlfriend jamming out in the passenger seat.

“Having fun?”

“There’s a bad moon on the rise!” Minnie sang in lieu of a response. And then she let out a chest-rattling howl into the wind.

“Oh, so noisy,” the vampire playfully complained.

“Sowwy,” Minnie sweetly apologized, reaching up to softly pat the back of her head. And Miyeon couldn’t hide the smile on her face. “CCR just gets me, you know?”

“Is this some kind of werewolf anthem or something? You’ve been singing it for months.”

“Shuhua likes it too.”

“So… werewolf anthem.”

Minnie just chuckled and continued bopping her head along to the music, her bright pink hair flailing in the wind.

The most important thing on any road trip was the music. And Minnie had named herself the designated DJ for their 50-hour long drive. They were headed to the biggest music festival ever that was being held on some random dairy farm in upstate New York.

Woodstock.

One of Minnie’s wolf buddies who lived in the area had recommended it to them—saying how it would definitely go down in history because of how good the acts were. That was all Minnie had needed to hear. So now, here they were, thirty hours into the drive with nothing but the open road and Minnie’s music to keep them company.

Miyeon decided to let her girlfriend enjoy herself, especially since she was driving too fast for any of the cars they passed by to overhear them.

A few songs later and the younger girl was jamming out hard with her air guitar. “Bannnaaahhh budum dum bwahhh wahhwahhwahhhh—oh Miyeon, Miyeon.”

“Hmm?”

“I’m going to get a guitar.”

Miyeon blinked at the sudden declaration. “Okay…?”

“If I start now, I’ll be better than Jimi Hendrix in no time—wahhhwahhhhh dununuhhnuhhh pahhhh. See? It’s easy!”

“Umm…”

“I’ll remember you when I’m rich and famous, don’t worry.”

Miyeon shook her head, but Minnie didn’t stop there.

In fact, she didn’t really _stop_ at all.

Song after song, she just kept moving—singing, dancing, playing imaginary instruments, everything. She was starting to sweat too now, even though that shouldn’t be possible with how hard the wind was hitting them. And even though they’d already spent a whole day on the road, she didn’t look tired at all—quite the opposite actually. At one point it even seemed like she’d forgotten she was in a moving vehicle.

After a while, Miyeon finally spoke up. “I thought you said you weren’t going to peak until we got there.”

Minnie looked up and Miyeon could see that her pupils were almost completely blown out. There was no question about it anymore. She was very, very high right now.

“Not peaking yet, babe,” she tried to reassure the vampire. “I timed it perfectly! We’re just climbing right now—won’t peak till we’re on that sweet, sweet Woodstock farm.”

“You mean, it gets worse?”

Minnie threw her pink head back in unfettered laughter. “Better! Definitely better!” She shouted out.

And maybe it did get better for the wolf—she certainly looked like she was having the time of her life. But for Miyeon, it felt like her anxiety was only skyrocketing.

Minnie absolutely _would not_ sit still. At all.

She did stop singing eventually though, but that was only so she could stare out at the passing foliage like a woman possessed.

Suddenly, she barked out, “There! That’s the one!”

Miyeon would’ve ignored her, but the girl also reached back and started slapping the arm she was currently driving with to try to get her attention. “What? What? The one what?” she asked, exasperated.

“That’s the tree, Miyeon,” Minnie gasped out, pointing at some random tree way behind them. “It keeps repeating every, every… It keeps repeating.”

The vampire sighed. “No, the trees are not repeating.”

But Minnie steadfastly ignored her, eyes scanning the tree line. “It’s coming up again. Five, six—there! That’s—”

“Sit down!” Miyeon had to grab at the back of the wolf’s pants to keep her from nearly falling out of the car. Obviously her seatbelt alone wasn’t going to cut it. “Minnie, I swear to God—”

“Maybe that wasn’t it?” She muttered despondently. “I think I missed it… Miyeon, I think I missed the tree…”

And as a vampire, Miyeon was far stronger than the average human. Mentally, physically and otherwise. But she had finally reached her limit.

With one hand still tightly gripping her girlfriend’s pants, she slowed the car down and pulled off to the side of the road. The thought briefly occurred to her that Minnie might make a break for the woods now that she was so much closer to them, but she just tightened her hold in response.

And she yelled.

“What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing?! Are you trying to give me a heart attack? My heart doesn’t even work and it still feels like you’re trying to kill me!”

Minnie shrinked back against her door in drug-induced fear. “Stop shouting…”

“Stop being so freakin’ stupid! Ughhh!!”

Her shout echoed off the trees, causing flocks of birds to fly off in fright. As she caught her breath, she closed her eyes. And then finally she decided to release her grip on the other girl’s pants. “Fine. Run off if you want, but you’re finding your own way to Woodstock.”

“Oh, come on. I was just joking,” Minnie weakly tried to defend herself, but Miyeon’s answering glare quickly shut her down.

“How much did you take?”

“What?”

“Whatever you’re hopped up on right now. How much?”

Minnie’s head listed slowly from side to side as she tried to get her thoughts together. “You know I burn off that stuff pretty fast. My body heat—my body’s too hot, you know—”

“How. Much.”

“Two times. Three times.” Minnie’s eyes quickly glanced at the vampire’s face, then looked away again. “I think three. Yeah, three.”

And all Miyeon could do was just sigh and shake her head in disappointment.

Minnie’s pout only grew. “Why do you look—don’t you remember back in Philly? With your pirate lady. Amy… Annie… Annhole… Asshol—”

“Anne Bonny.”

“Yeah. This new-age shit doesn’t even come close to the stuff back then. I’m not even drinking.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Miyeon propped her head up with her hand, more tired than she had any right to be as a vampire.

“There, there…” Minnie stretched her hand out and tentatively stroked her hair. “There, there… my sweet little pet.”

And it was a combination of those hesitant words and the fact that Minnie still wouldn’t meet her eyes, that led Miyeon to her next question. “What do I look like to you right now?”

Minnie stopped short, then let out an uncontrollable giggle. “My Miyeon,” she smartly responded.

“You’re tripping out, aren’t you?”

“No…” But the dopey smile on her face and the way her eyes flitted around said otherwise.

Miyeon rolled her eyes and decided—fuck it. “I’m driving. If you fall out, that’s your problem.” And she turned the key in the ignition.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Minnie grabbed Miyeon by the head and turned her face towards her. “Can you—” she kept breaking off in giggles. “Can you just—Say—Say ahhh.”

“Minnie.”

“Please! Just once! Please!”

Miyeon sighed with her whole body. But, she gave in.

She opened her mouth and let out a quiet, “Ahhh.”

And Minnie absolutely lost it. She fell back in her seat, laughing so hard no sound came out of her mouth. She almost looked like she was in pain the way she convulsed. But her seatbelt was on, so Miyeon pulled swiftly back onto the road, not caring for any whiplash she may have caused.

\--

As they finally got into upstate New York, whatever luck Miyeon had left finally ran out.

And it was all because of a pirate named Anne Bonny.

“Can’t believe you thought a pirate was better than me—me? Kim Minnie? Left-handed super werewolf Kim Minnie?”

“What super werewolf?” Miyeon scoffed, her face the picture of boredom. They were starting to hit some traffic, so they’d decided to put up the top of the convertible. That meant that she couldn’t count on the wind to drown out Minnie’s voice anymore. Now she could hear it all in absolute perfect surround sound. And the topic of this particularly stretch of their trip was the time they’d lived in pirate town Philadelphia back in the early 1700s. And the fact that, although they’d still been living together at the time, Miyeon had been very interested in a young pirate named Anne Bonny. _Very_ interested.

Minnie pouted in her seat. “She wasn’t even that good looking, you just liked her because she had a pointy sword.”

“Do you really think I’m that shallow?”

“And she had a ship too, but so what? She can’t even transform—but I can turn into a sexy beast any time I want—”

“Oh my god,” Miyeon rolled her eyes.

“I’m sexy!” Minnie adamantly declared, turning to face the vampire. “Miyeon, be honest. Me or Annie what’s-her-face, who’s sexier?” Her eyelids fluttered in an earnest appeal that made Miyeon want to hit her so bad.

“She’s dead.”

“So?”

Miyeon raised an incredulous eyebrow at the girl. “Do you really think your _werewolf_ form is sexy? Seriously? You think that does it for me?”

And Minnie looked like she was about to cry. “It doesn’t…?”

“Oh my god—Minnie, just shut up for a second. _Please_.” She looked around for some place she could stop. A gas station, truck stop, convenience store—anywhere. She just needed a few minutes to not be in the same car as Minnie while she was like this. Why did she think taking such a high dosage was a good idea? Did Shuhua put her up to this? Was this some kind of pack thing that only made sense when they were full-moon crazy? If so, she’d be having some very strong words with Soojin’s little wolf when they got back.

“Fine. I’ll shut up,” Minnie petulantly agreed. “But I know you only wanted to make me jealous. That’s fine—you always come back in the end.”

Miyeon’s hands tightened dangerously on the steering wheel. She knew Minnie was high right now and she shouldn’t take anything she was saying seriously, but… damnit if that throwaway line didn’t strike a chord.

“At least _I_ came back,” Miyeon bitterly commented.

And the way Minnie brokenly looked at her then made it clear that she knew what she was talking about. Salem. They usually tried not to bring it up, but the vampire couldn’t help it this time. She immediately regretted it though because bringing up Salem was a surefire way to kill any good mood. And that’s not what this road trip was supposed to be about. This was their time to do something crazy and spontaneous and have fun together. Maybe Minnie had gone a bit too far with the ‘do something crazy’ part of things, but they could handle that. They’d been through too much together (and not together) to not know how to deal with a tiny inconvenience like this.

So, Miyeon quickly tried to clear the air. “Besides, you liked Philly. Apart from the whole Anne Bonny thing—tell me it wasn’t one of your favorite places. You’re always saying how you want to go back.”

“True,” Minnie sniffed with a nod. “Maybe once Shuhua gets better we can all go to…” Then she glanced out the window and suddenly sat up. “There’s a horse.”

“What?”

“Miyeon. Horse. On the road. Horse.”

Miyeon was positive Minnie was just tripping out again, but then she took a look through her rearview mirror and was shocked to see that the girl wasn’t lying. Behind them, nestled among the jam-packed cars, was a girl on a horse. Trotting down the middle of the road like she was on any old ranch and not a major highway.

“What in the world—Minnie, no!”

But Minnie had already popped open her door and slipped out. Thankfully, the traffic had gotten so bad that their car hadn’t been moving at all, but that’s where the good news ended. Now Miyeon had a drugged-out werewolf out on the loose. And there was a horse.

Miyeon frantically rolled her window down and stuck her head out to look back at the mess that was about to happen.

Minnie had already run all the way down to where the horse was, no doubt moving faster than a human being was supposed to.

It didn’t seem like any of the people from the other cars had realized it though. Now that she got the chance to look around, Miyeon could see that quite a few other vehicles were making use of their stoppage time to hang out in the sun. Windows were down, doors were open, people were laid out on top of cars and in between them, and music was blasting from at least a dozen stereos. Oh, and of course there were drugs too. Some of the cars were completely shrouded in smoke, especially those Volkswagen vans that were all decked out in colorful peace signs. It looked like most if not all of the people on the road were on their way to Woodstock too, but they’d decided to get the party started early.

Which brought her back to Minnie and the horse. The pink-haired girl was animatedly following along and talking to the young rider.

Miyeon was able to filter out the other noises around her and focus in on their conversation even though they were still quite some distance away.

“—cool. I’ve never seen so many people up here before though. Is there a party or something?” The horse girl was asking.

“Woodstock. Big music festival. Huge.” Minnie’s words were getting choppier and faster, and her hands were moving incessantly. Miyeon realized that either Minnie was really, really into horses all of a sudden or she was starting to hit her peak faster than they’d anticipated. “My Miyeon thinks it’s going to be lame, but she’s an alligator, so what does she know?”

So that’s what Minnie had been hallucinating before…

“You have a pet alligator?”

“No, no, no, she’s a vampire. Vampire, yes. But her face when she goes like ahhhhh—” Minnie opened her mouth wide and the horse startled a bit at the growl that unconsciously slipped out. “Looks like ‘gator.”

“Whoa, your teeth are crazy sharp,” the horse girl marveled.

“That’s ‘cause I’m a wolf—need teeth to bite things.”

Miyeon slapped a hand over her face and let out a deep sigh. So much for trying to keep a low profile. High Minnie apparently had very loose lips. Thankfully, the girl on the horse didn’t look freaked out, she just laughed and kept the conversation going. She probably thought Minnie was just tripping on something pretty strong right now. Which was actually pretty accurate.

Miyeon slipped back down into her seat and decided to just wait until Minnie got closer before she dragged her back into the car. This would be the wolf’s last time ever getting high, so she’d better savor the heck out of it.

“A wolf and a vamp huh? That’s new.” The sharp voice came from a few cars ahead. Miyeon quickly looked over and saw a blonde girl in a leather jacket with a sly smile on her face. She was sitting on the trunk of her car, ostensibly jamming out with the guys around her. But she wasn’t paying attention to them at all. Instead, she was talking in a low tone that only Miyeon could hear. “No trouble or anything. I’m just curious.”

Miyeon clenched her jaw, contemplating how to respond to this new supernatural presence. The girl was probably a vampire, but that wasn’t a safe bet—especially because Miyeon knew for a fact that there weren’t any covens in the area. She’d made sure to check that out before agreeing to go on the Woodstock trip. But maybe the girl was like them and she was just in town for the festival. Then why would she reveal herself like this? What was she hoping to gain from exposing herself?

Another strike against her vampire theory was the fact that the girl was sitting out in the sun, but she wasn’t sparkling at all. Miyeon had no idea what to think.

But man, she would’ve really appreciated being able to discuss this with a sober Minnie. And that’s what she chose to focus on now. Minnie was in a pretty vulnerable state at the moment—better to deescalate the situation rather than get hostile.

“We’re just here for Woodstock,” Miyeon carefully responded, keeping her voice light and sweet. “Like everyone else.”

“Okay,” the girl nodded. She glanced over at Minnie, then back to Miyeon. “Your wolf’s gone, by the way.”

Miyeon tried not to let her surprise show on her face. Her eyes slid over to look at her rearview mirror and, sure as the sky was blue, Minnie and the horse were gone. God fucking damnit.

“I can watch your car for you,” the girl said, raising her brow with her offer. “If you want.”

“I don’t know you,” Miyeon hissed out through gritted teeth.

“Jeon Soyeon,” the girl replied.

Miyeon weighed the situation in her head over and over again. She had to go after Minnie. And the sooner, the better. But this Soyeon character… There were so many questions. So many unknowns.

With a sigh, she decided to just trust the jacket-clad girl. She’d probably regret it later, but not as much as she’d regret losing Minnie in the middle-of-nowhere New York.

Instead of answering, Miyeon disappeared.

Moving faster than the human eye could see, she jumped out of the car and sped off into the woods. Eyes and ears alert, she ducked and weaved through the trees, listening for the sounds of a dying horse and/or a raging werewolf. She heard neither.

But she did hear the faint sound of the horse girl’s voice. So, she spun on her heels and launched herself in that new direction. She quickly found the source. And the horse.

The horse girl was standing beside her trusty animal, looking around in confusion. Miyeon hid behind a tree and listened in. “Did she get lost? She was just beside us, wasn’t she, boy?” The horse neighed in response. “Maybe she turned back while we weren’t looking?” And then she sighed, shaking her head. “If she didn’t want to race us, she should’ve just said so. Of course there was no way she could run faster than us. They always think they can, but they never do,” She proudly said, brushing the flank of her horse. “Looks like we’re still unbeaten, boy. Let’s go.” And then she pulled herself up onto the saddle and trotted off into the woods.

Miyeon shook her head in disbelief. So, apparently Minnie had challenged the horse to a race? Unbelievable. Maybe Miyeon really _should_ just leave her girlfriend out her in the woods.

But then, suddenly, a loud howl echoed through the trees. And it sounded close too.

Miyeon only hesitated for a second before rocketing off towards the source of the howl. And, sure enough, it led her straight to one left-handed super werewolf Kim Minnie. Her girlfriend had transformed, but instead of the carnage she’d been dreading, the wolf was laid out on her back, pawing at her eyes and whining in the back of her throat.

So this is what a high wolf looked like.

Miyeon could only laugh. Especially because Minnie’s fur was a shocking pink color to match her dyed human hair. She looked like some kind of high end furry fashion piece gone wrong, or maybe one of those psychedelic ‘love and peace’ couches that all the hippies had these days. Minnie turned towards her, nose first, when she finally noticed her. The look in her eyes was as pitiful as it was still loopy.

“You’re unbelievable, you know that?” Miyeon shook her head in disbelief.

Minnie’s maw stretched open wide like she wanted to say something but had forgotten she was a wolf now and so couldn’t speak. Instead, she just wriggled and rolled around on the forest floor. Huffing and puffing like the animal she was.

“And I suppose this is the part where you tell me your body actually _doesn’t_ know how to handle so much drugs, so your wolf came out as a form of self-preservation.” Miyeon sat down beside her ailing girlfriend, running her hand comfortingly through her fur.

Minnie whined, but shuffled as close as her giant body would allow.

“It’s fine,” Miyeon whispered soothingly, “What kind of music festival happens on a farm anyway? I bet it’s not even going to be that good—”

“Holy shit, man!”

Miyeon looked up at the unexpected shout to see a young, shirtless man staring at them. His eyes were opened so wide it looked like they were about to pop out.

“It’s pink, man! Your dog’s, like, so fucking pink, man! And it’s so big too, holy shit!”

Minnie’s head perked up instinctively, but Miyeon quickly hushed her. The last thing she wanted was for Minnie to get worked up in the state she was in. So Miyeon took matters into her own hands.

In the blink of an eye, she zipped over to the guy’s side and calmly said, “She’s not a dog, she’s a werewolf.” The man stumbled back in shock, face quickly losing all color. “And I’m a vampire, but you wouldn’t want me to prove that to you, now would you?”

Once the words registered, he violently shook his head, backing up faster and faster.

“Now, run away before I start to get… thirsty—”

“Don’t eat me, man, I’m a vegetarian!” He yelled, running away like his life depended on it. It didn’t, but he didn’t have to know that.

Miyeon smirked and looked back at her pink wolf on the ground. “The things I do for love… and you too, I guess.” She laughed at the way Minnie’s snout scrunched up, as if disgruntled. “I’ll say whatever I want, so be quiet.” She walked back over and sat down once again beside her girlfriend. “After the day I’ve had, I don’t want to hear another word out of you.”

\--

Minnie didn’t transform back until midday Saturday, at which point, they decided to just cut their losses on the whole Woodstock thing.

They walked back to where Miyeon had left the car and she was not surprised to see that the roads were clear now. What did surprise her was the fact that her car had been pulled off to the side of the road behind a familiar silver convertible. Soyeon was reclined in her driver’s seat, her eyes watching them behind her sunglasses as they came closer.

“You never said yes, so I decided to watch your car anyway,” the blonde girl greeted.

Minnie eyed her suspiciously, but didn’t say anything as she bonelessly slipped back into their car. She was obviously still way too strung out to function. Miyeon, on the other hand, fixed the other girl with a grateful smile. “We appreciate it.”

“Maybe I’ll see you around?”

Miyeon only nodded then, before she got into the driver’s seat. She turned the key in the ignition and pulled back out onto the road—this time in the opposite direction. She watched Soyeon’s car in her rearview mirror until it disappeared from view.

Then, she turned to Minnie.

“So what music did you have planned for the ride back?”

The pink-haired girl groaned. “The sound of silence…”

“Hmm, Simon and Garfunkel, I like it.”

Minnie smiled pitifully in response.

As the sun beat down and the car sped down the highway, Miyeon had to admit that this weekend would probably become one they’d never forget. But definitely not for the same reasons as the other people who’d made the trip up to Woodstock.

“You’re not going to break up with me over this, are you?” Minnie asked after some time. “And run off to Europe again…”

“Stop talking. Let your body rest.”

“Fine,” Minnie sighed. She closed her eyes as she curled up in her seat. “As long as you come back…”

Miyeon glanced over at her girlfriend (for now), but didn’t respond. Instead, she decided to just enjoy the rest of their Woodstock trip while it lasted. A road trip’s not over until you get back home, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *clears throat* Your friendly neighborhood pink werewolf here with a PSA: Hey kids, don't do drugs.
> 
> Now that that's out of the way, hope you enjoyed the new update. Pop down to the comments to drop your thoughts, feelings, yell about the kda comeback, whatever--I love reading your comments, they're literally my life source lol  
> Also, have a good weekend guys :)
> 
> Also also, for anyone who's curious, the song Minnie's singing is: Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival


	3. WWII (in a town far from the war) – 1940

**_Chapter 3: WWII (in a town far from the war) – 1940_ **

Soojin rocked back onto her heels, peering up at the shelves of food in front of her. Or rather, what used to be shelves filled with food—now she could see more of the underlying metal hardware than not.

It looked like the war panic had reached this little town too.

The vampire pursed her lips and held her breath as a grim-faced woman boldly pushed a trolley past her to grab the last pack of oats. Did she think that she’d just managed to slip the box out from under Soojin’s nose? That she’d made it just in the nick of time? Little did she know that there was only one thing in this entire store that Soojin wanted to buy and she still hadn’t found it yet. Everything else in her shopping basket was practically rubbish to her.

Soojin tried not to make it obvious that she wasn’t breathing as she slowly moved to the other end of the aisle. She wasn’t a feral vampire by any means, but she wasn’t about to take any chances.

The trolley lady eventually moved on and Soojin looked up indifferently at the boxes of cereal she’d landed in front of.

And sure enough, there was no blood coupon there either. Of course not.

She let out a sharp noise through her teeth, then walked all the way back to the cold meat section at the back of the store. This was where the coupons were usually stashed—in between pounds of beef and chicken. The covens would strike a deal with certain stores in their neighbourhood to provide a reliable blood supply to their own coven members and to any visiting vamps. Like Soojin.

Miyeon had taught her how to spot the stores— _there’s a red cross sign on the eaves or the windows. But not that fake plus sign thing, a real cross._

And then where to find the blood coupons— _in the meats, where else? Give it to the cashier first and they’ll know. Tell them how many pints and they’ll get it for you._

But Miyeon’s advice didn’t seem to be holding up well in the middle of a war. Most stores were hit hard by the panic-buying and were well into the rationing phase of things. Which meant no more meats. The coolers were completely turned off too, and the dark, empty racks just looked sad.

But whereas Sally the trolley lady could just grab a box of oats instead to sate her hunger, Soojin was out of options. She was in a new town too, so it wasn’t like she knew any of the cashiers either. What was she supposed to do? Go up to them and show off her ridiculously pale skin and red eyes? And what if this _wasn’t_ a coven-affiliated store? If she told them she was a vampire and they called the cops on her, then what? She’d have to move towns (again) and try to find blood in some other half-empty grocery store. She’d be right back to square one.

If only Miyeon were still here…

Soojin’s lips fell into a disgruntled pout as she grumpily retraced her steps back through the aisles. She was almost past the socially acceptable amount of time one could spend in a store without buying anything. If she didn’t find this stupid coupon soon, she’d have to leave empty-handed. And where would she find blood then? She didn’t want to think about it.

On her next circuit past the meat coolers, her nose picked up on a sour smell that made her face wrinkle into a grimace. Who knows how long it had been since those racks had been cleaned?

Soojin sighed in defeat and finally decided to call it a day. She swung her shopping basket lazily by her legs as she turned to leave.

But she came to a screeching halt when she saw a mess of boxes on the floor, spilling out of one of the aisles. It was quite a distance away, but her superhuman eyes saw that it was the cereals that had taken the casualty. Strange, Soojin certainly hadn’t heard it happen… and the store wasn’t that full for it to have been masked by the sound of the other shoppers.

Even stranger was the fact that there seemed to be a few cards among the mess. They almost looked like… blood coupons?

Soojin walked over briskly, very nearly forgoing all pretenses at appearing human. Whatever, no one was watching anyway. She snatched up one of the cards from the cereal pile and almost cried tears of joy because yes! Yes, yes, yes, this was definitely a blood coupon!

Belatedly, she tried to mask her excitement behind a bland smile and looked around to make sure no one had seen her. The aisles were clear—though she could swear she caught a glimpse of a bushy head of hair disappearing around a corner.

No matter. She had what she needed now, no need to stay any longer.

\--

Soojin walked out of the grocery store with a spring in her step.

Her hands were full with bags of human food—she’d still had to purchase what was in her basket—and three pints of O positive.

She was in a good mood. On the outside, she still looked as stoic as ever, but on the inside she was dancing for joy. Despite her earlier troubles, she’d accomplished everything she’d set out to do today: send off a letter to Miyeon at the post office and stock up on blood. Sure it was a short list, but who cared? For the first time in a while, she was happy.

But she wasn’t stupid.

Which is why she was able to notice the tail she’d picked up since she’d left the store. They weren’t being too obvious about it. Following her from a safe enough distance that she couldn’t tell with her hearing if they were human or not. But her eyes never betrayed her. And she’d immediately put two and two together when she’d spied that same unruly head of hair from back in the store.

So, without breaking her stride, Soojin headed towards the park instead of her house. Let them try and grab her out in the open if they dared.

She hadn’t had too many experiences with covens since she’d been turned, but Miyeon had told her countless stories. How they didn’t always take kindly to new vamps in their territory. How some coven members felt that unaffiliated vampires cared more about their own pleasure than ensuring the survival of their race. And how in recent years they’d gotten very attached to the war effort, recruiting and urging their members to use this chance to establish lasting order in their changing society. That last one had been all Miyeon had talked about before she’d up and left for Europe. Soojin hadn’t known the older vampire for too long, but she’d gotten a sense that Miyeon had been worn out by the politics of it all. And maybe there’d been some personal issues as well, but they hadn’t discussed any of that.

Maybe Miyeon would start sharing a bit more about herself through their letters now that they were oceans apart. Or maybe not. Soojin wouldn’t push. Miyeon was like a mentor to her in this scary new supernatural world she’d fallen into. She wouldn’t do anything to risk losing her.

So, if some coven vampire felt like jumping her today, Soojin would hold her ground and fight back like Miyeon had taught her.

Soojin walked over to a bench on the edge of a healthy patch of green, and deposited her bags next to her as she sat down. She was facing away from the sidewalk—away from the person who’d been tailing her. She couldn’t tell how far back they were, but she knew they were still there. No matter, she’d sit here and wait for as long as was necessary.

But about an hour and a half later, Soojin started to wonder if maybe her tail was just shy. 

Coven members loved to preach about their ‘better lives’ and ‘moral superiority’, so why wasn’t this one coming up to speak to her? Growing curious now, Soojin decided to throw them a bone.

“If you come out now, I’ll listen to what you have to say,” Soojin evenly announced. “I won’t run off, so just stop hiding.”

For a moment, nothing happened. And Soojin started to wonder if maybe she’d missed the mark entirely. Maybe this wasn’t some coven vamp here to spread the good word about their causes. Maybe this was something more dangerous—

And then her nose picked up on that same foul scent from back in the store. But instead of going away, it got worse. Growing stronger and more acrid as she heard the person who could only be her tail coming closer.

God, what the hell…?

Soojin’s hand snapped up to cover her nose, springing to her feet as she turned to see—it definitely wasn’t a vampire.

The girl looked to be around Soojin’s age (not her real vampire age, obviously) and her skin was somehow paler than any vampire she’d ever seen. But that’s where the similarities ended. Her hair was ridiculously long and wild, looking like it hadn’t seen a brush in months. And her heartbeat was inhumanly fast, beating almost triple time in her chest. Soojin’s eyes met hers and the vampire could see the frantic way they flicked around. Like she could barely focus on any one thing for too long. The girl was obviously trying to focus in on Soojin, but it looked like it was a constant battle. The smell may have been the first thing that she noticed, but now Soojin could see that her clothes were torn and full of dirt marks. But not in a way that suggested she was homeless—more like she’d spent all day rolling around the ground.

Oh, and she was absolutely beautiful.

But, Soojin decided not to focus on that last observation for now.

“You’re not a vampire…” What a stupidly obvious thing to say, but Soojin was too shocked to come up with anything else.

The girl clenched her jaw and shook her head. “No,” she finally spoke. It was higher-pitched than Soojin had been expecting. “No, no… but you are, that’s why I followed you.” Her words came out choppily but it didn’t really sound like any accent Soojin knew. Instead it felt like the girl just wasn’t used to speaking or maybe hadn’t done so in a really, really long time. “I didn’t mean to scare you… I need your help.”

“ _My_ help?”

“Yes! You know Cho Miyeon, right? You sent a letter to—”

“Wait, how long have you been following me?” Soojin took a cautionary step backwards. This was starting to get weird. It was bad enough that this superhuman stink bomb had been stalking her, but now she was bringing Miyeon into this too? She was fully on her guard now.

“Not too long, I promise!” The girl hastily waved her hands. “I wanted to talk, but I didn’t want to scare you. I swear! I’m still not used to… I promise I’m not dangerous!”

And maybe it was Soojin’s relatively short time living as a vampire speaking, but she was inclined to believe this strange girl. She certainly seemed honest enough. And young. She probably hadn’t been turned until recently. Hmm, what would Miyeon do…? Well, first off, Miyeon would probably know exactly what kind of supernatural this girl was.

So Soojin slowly straightened up, dropped her hand from her nose and warily glanced at the girl. “What are you?” She asked, trying not to breathe in as she spoke.

“Oh! I’m a werewolf,” the girl chirped, proudly raising a hand to her chest. “My name’s Shuhua. Yeh Shuhua.”

“Shuhua…” Soojin mulled the name over in her mind. She’d never met a werewolf before, so she had no idea what they were supposed to look or sound like. Miyeon had briefly mentioned something about stamina one time? But Soojin could barely remember what they’d even been talking about. “You say you’re not dangerous, but how can I trust you?” Soojin raised an eyebrow at the girl. “You were following me all day. Who sent you?”

“I… My friend sent me—actually we’re a pack now, I guess…” Shuhua bit her lip in thought. “She’s looking for Miyeon and she wanted help to find her. She helped me a lot, so I want to help her too. She’s my first friend,” Shuhua finished with a smile.

“Who is? Miyeon?”

“No, I’ve never met her, but she sounds nice from what Minn—my friend told me. But I think Miyeon probably got upset maybe? And that’s why she left? I don’t really know…” Shuhua admitted.

“So you’re looking for someone you don’t know because your friend told you to, but you don’t even know why?” Soojin asked incredulously. “And you expect me to help you?”

Shuhua pouted, scratching behind her ears like some kind of tick. “My friend’s a good person, I don’t need a reason.”

“Well, that won’t work with me,” the vampire dismissed, turning away so she could suck in a lungful of air without seeming too rude. Were werewolves supposed to smell this bad? “I won’t report you to the coven if you leave now.” Honestly, Soojin didn’t know if that was something she _could_ do, but it seemed like a good bluff. The way Shuhua carried herself, she didn’t seem like the kind to be well-versed in vampire politics.

“I can’t leave!” The girl denied with an aggrieved whine. Then she started to pace to and fro, scuffling along distractedly. “I’ve been tracking her scent for weeks, and you’re my first lead! If I give up now, then it might be months before I pick up anything again—or never! What if she’s dead?”

Soojin spun back around sharply, glaring at the hyperactive girl. “Keep words like that out of your mouth—you don’t know Miyeon.”

“I’m sorry! Sorry!” Shuhua shouted, then buried her fingers in her hair as she kept moving. She was starting to look a bit manic, honestly. “I just don’t know how much longer I can—” And then Shuhua let out an impatient growl from deep within her chest. She slapped her hand over her mouth once she realized. “Sorry! Sorry!” Came the muffled apology.

Something in Soojin told her that this behavior wasn’t normal, even for werewolves. So, she swallowed back her reservations and gently asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” the girl gasped out from behind her mouth, her eyes flitting around like mad. “I’m just not used to… to people yet… so tracking you through town all day…”

Soojin narrowed her eyes. “So now it’s my fault?”

“No! No!” Her voice sounded like a yipping dog, which would’ve been funny if she also didn’t look like she was going to pee her pants. “I don’t know why it’s so bad now, but—” And then she just… stopped moving. Her eyes were wide and seemed to be staring straight ahead at… something.

Soojin furrowed her brows at the strange, strange girl. She tried to follow her line of sight and saw that Shuhua was looking at an elderly couple who were slowly walking down the sidewalk towards them.

Oh no.

“Shuhua?” Soojin tried to jolt her out of her trance. “Shuhua, hey, look at me.” But it was no use, the girl was completely unresponsive. Gone was the nervous girl from before, instead she now looked every bit like the predator she was. She was watching her prey.

“Shuhua!” Soojin took hold of the girl’s arm and shook it hard. Shuhua’s body felt like it was on fire compared to the vampire’s ice cold skin. But Soojin held on, trying to snap the girl back to reality.

This kind of scene was all too familiar for a young vamp like her. Just how many times had Miyeon had to step in and prevent Soojin from tearing out some poor bloke’s throat? All because she was thirsty and couldn’t control herself, because she was weak? It was embarrassing. This was Soojin’s first time on the other side of things though. This time she was the stronger one trying to stop someone less experienced from giving in to their baser instincts. And she was so fucking out of her depth.

Soojin tightened her grasp to keep the girl rooted to her spot. Shuhua had started to gravitate towards the human couple—getting ready to strike.

If Shuhua were a vamp, she’d just give her some of the blood she’d bought at the store. But she wasn’t, she was a werewolf. She wasn’t thirsty, so why the hell was she acting like this? What had her so wound up?

“Shuhua, you need to help me out here,” Soojin frantically whispered. “Tell me what’s wrong so I can fix it. Quickly.”

But instead of answering, Shuhua just started growling. Of course.

God… what would Miyeon do?

And then Soojin had an idea.

“If you don’t get your shit together, I won’t tell you where Miyeon is,” Soojin snarled out in her most intimidating vampire voice. “I thought you wanted to help your friend.” Hopefully the sound of a rival predator coupled with a reminder about her promise to her friend would kickstart something in Shuhua’s head.

And thankfully, it did.

Shuhua blinked and her body almost sagged in Soojin’s hands. The girl looked around confused until her eyes met the vampire’s. “I do want…”

“Then don’t attack humans,” the vampire said like it was the simplest thing in the world to do. “If you need to go run or howl or fight a bear, whatever, then go do that. But don’t come back until you can control this.”

“But…” Shuhua tried to protest but her eyes started glazing over and turned back to look at the oblivious couple.

“No! Shuhua, no,” Soojin snapped like some kind of dog owner. She pinched the girl’s ears for good measure and felt just slightly more relieved when Shuhua recoiled in pain. “Go. Now.”

“You’ll leave,” the girl huffed out.

“Even if I did, you’d still be able to track me back down,” Soojin commented, with a small roll of her eyes. “You’ll find me. I promise.” She smiled reassuringly to try and further convince her. “Go. I’ll see you later, Yeh Shuhua.”

“… Okay,” Shuhua blinked and turned almost robotically away from Soojin and the sidewalk. But then she turned right back to ask, “What’s your name?”

“You don’t need my name to find me.”

“I know.”

Soojin scoffed at the persistent look on the other girl’s face. It was obvious she was still pretty rattled, still in some pain. But she was resisting it all just so she could get this tiny piece of information. And maybe it was just because Soojin wanted her far from any humans as soon as possible—maybe that’s why she answered so quickly. “Seo Soojin. I’ll wait for you.”

Shuhua nodded once, face still tight with the effort required to restrain herself. Then, she took off like a bullet towards the service building at the edge of the park. Behind it was a track that led down to the farmlands on the edge of town. Hopefully Shuhua wouldn’t attack any of the cattle in broad daylight—or at the very least, Soojin hoped she wouldn’t do it in her human form.

Soojin turned back to her grocery bags on the bench and was just in time to see the elderly couple pass by. They nodded their heads in her direction, oblivious to the fact that she’d just saved their lives. She nodded back, relieved to have somehow made it out of that situation without causing a coven incident.

She picked up her bags and sighed, her good mood from earlier all but gone now. She decided it was time to go home. If she was going to meet with Shuhua again, she didn’t want it to be anywhere where the girl could endanger anyone else.

She didn’t doubt that Shuhua would be able to track her scent down to her house. But, in honor of the promise she’d made, Soojin plucked the top button off of her sweater and placed it on the bench. That should be more than enough…

Just in case, Soojin picked up a rock and carved the initials _S.S._ right beside it. A little overkill, maybe, but she was a woman of her word.

\--

A soft knock on the back door of her house was what made Soojin finally look up from the mess she’d made in the kitchen.

She brushed her hands off on her skirt and walked at a human pace over to answer it. Even though the rapid heartbeats and foul smell told her the person at the door was far from human. Soojin took a deep breath and then opened the inner door. She looked through the outer mesh to see a sheepish Shuhua standing outside.

“Did you fight a bear?” Soojin couldn’t help but tease the girl.

“No… I couldn’t find any…”

Soojin didn’t know if it was a joke or not, but she held off on laughing because that would mean losing some of the precious non-werewolf air in her lungs. If she could, she’d host this meeting outside, but her neighbours were as nosy at it was without her parading around a werewolf in her back yard.

“Come in,” Soojin said through clenched teeth.

“I tried to wash up before I came here—I think I got all the dirt off,” Shuhua explained as she stepped inside.

“Mhm.” So either the girl had just thrown some water on her body and called it a day, or this werewolf smell was impervious to her cleaning efforts. A smell that ran bone-deep, probably. How lovely. “You look cleaner,” Soojin commented, heartbroken that it was the truth.

“Thanks!” Shuhua replied, looking around the small two-story house that Soojin called her home. Well, it was technically some guy named Marshal Bradley’s home, but he was currently off at war and nobody had batted an eye when Soojin had claimed to be his long-lost sister and moved in. “Sometimes I forget what it’s like to live around other people. I’m usually alone,” Shuhua commented.

Soojin gestured for Shuhua to sit on the small couch that she didn’t like. She made a mental note to burn it afterwards. “What about your friend? You said you were in a pack?” Soojin sat down across from the girl, sitting almost directly underneath the high-powered ceiling fan. She’d opted to keep the windows closed for privacy, so she had to improvise. “The only thing I have that you can drink is water, do you want some?”

“No, I’m fine.” Shuhua shook her head. “And I do have a pack. With the friend I was telling you about. Just the two of us.”

“That sounds small?”

“It is! But it’s not for safety or anything—usually packs are big because they have to be able to protect their territory. But we don’t have any.”

“Then why…”

“Because she really, really wants to find Miyeon. My friend saved me before, so I decided to help her, so we made a pack.” Soojin nodded her head at the remarkably simple explanation for a decision she was sure was far more complicated in reality. But she didn’t want to interrupt Shuhua’s story. If she was going to trust this girl, she needed to know more about her. “Before that, I don’t think I’d ever met a vampire before. Or a human really.”

And that made Soojin do a double-take.

“What do you mean you’d never met a human before?” That didn’t make much sense to her. “What about before you turned?”

“I was a pretty sick child, so I stayed home all the time,” Shuhua admitted in a small voice. “The town doctor came to see me and my parents, but that was pretty much it. And then after that...”

“Were you just out in the wild all this time?”

“You could call it that.” Shuhua nodded. “I lived with some wolves in Alaska until my friend found me.”

And then the words ‘town doctor’ refused to leave Soojin’s head, so she asked. “How long have you been a wolf?”

Shuhua screwed her face up in thought. “What year is it?” She asked.

“1940.”

“So… almost… 150 years?”

Soojin snorted in disbelief, sure that Shuhua had to be joking. But the girl just smiled in her seat, waiting for the vampire to ask another question. Was she serious? This girl was supposed to be more than a hundred years older than her? Soojin had always imagined that the longer you lived, the more mature and experienced you were. That had seemed to be the case with most of the vampires she’d met so far, Miyeon included.

But for Shuhua to be so old, yet so young in many ways… She must’ve been living a pretty isolated life in Alaska. That would certainly explain why she was still so skittish around people—she was practically a newborn.

“Okay,” Soojin sighed out and tried to gather her thoughts. Except, she’d forgotten that she’d been holding her breath for a reason. She hesitated for a long moment, then took a tentative breath back in—only to be practically hit in the face by eau de werewolf. “Okay…” Might as well get to the point now before the scent started sticking to the furniture. “So you and your friend are looking for Miyeon… Why?”

“I don’t know, my friend didn’t really say.”

“Right.” Soojin looked down pensively at her fingers in her lap. She decided to change tactics. “How were you tracking her?” She’d left a button for Shuhua because scents faded faster than you’d think. For these wolves to have been able to track Miyeon so long, they’d need something bigger like—

“Minn—my friend gave me this.” Shuhua pulled out a small plastic bag from her pocket. She opened it to pull out a crumpled up knit top that Soojin had seen Miyeon wear at least a dozen times. She could even smell the older vampire’s scent from here.

Soojin swallowed roughly. “Do you—I mean, does your friend think she might be in trouble?”

“Maybe?” Shuhua answered with a hopeless shrug. She carefully stuffed the top back in the bag and tied it shut. “She said Miyeon was talking about a coven before she left? My friend thinks that she could’ve been forced to join the war.”

And more than anything else that Shuhua had said so far, this is what made Soojin sure she was speaking the truth. Miyeon _had_ been complaining about coven politics a lot before she left. That wasn’t something one did out in the open, unless they wanted a late night visit from some not-so-nice vampires. For Shuhua’s friend to know that much, she had to have known Miyeon personally. It barely registered in Soojin’s mind that this meant that Miyeon must’ve had some sort of relationship (friends or otherwise) with Shuhua’s wolf friend. This was the kind of information she’d hoped the older vampire would share with her on her own terms. But, if all this was true, then Miyeon might not be able to share anything with her ever again.

Soojin hoped she wasn’t about to make the biggest mistake of her undead life.

“Miyeon’s in Europe,” she whispered so softly, no human would’ve been able to hear. But Shuhua did. The girl looked shocked for a moment, before her face lit up in excitement.

“Really?”

“Mhm,” Soojin nodded, playing with her fingers. “I don’t know her address… and even if I did I wouldn’t tell you,” she said firmly, glancing up at Shuhua’s face. The letter she’d sent earlier had been addressed to a P.O. box, in a city that Soojin chose to keep to herself. “But I _can_ say… that she’s not in America anymore.”

“Oh! Thank you! Thank you so much!” Shuhua loudly enthused, springing to her feet and bowing deeply. Soojin wondered where she’d picked up such mannerisms—she was sure it wasn’t from Alaska. Maybe in her human life? “I don’t know how to repay you—you’ve helped us so much!”

“Actually…” Soojin said as she got to her feet. She swiftly moved into her slightly less werewolf-infused kitchen and took a clandestine breath in. If she ever saw Miyeon again, one of the first things she was going to ask her is how she could stand that terrible smell. For Miyeon to be personally involved with a wolf, she must’ve gotten over it or used to it or something. Which was nothing sort of incredible to Soojin. “Actually,” she repeated. “All the food I bought today went bad. So I was hoping you could help me take care of it.”

She heard Shuhua practically fall over herself in her haste to get into the kitchen. When she did, she looked around at the counters in shock and awe. “You didn’t buy this much,” she squeaked out.

“You’re right.” Soojin pointed to a small group of items that were slightly set aside. “That’s what I got today. The rest…” She waved a hand towards the mountain of food that would’ve probably fed a whole family for a month. “They were left by the human who used to live here. I got a letter from the post office saying he won’t be back for a while.” That was a lie. The letter had said he’d be back very soon, in fact. In a casket. “So I wanted to clear out the food before it goes bad.”

“Wow…”

And then Soojin had a brief moment of worry. “You… do still eat human food, right? I just assumed—”

“No! I mean, yes! I do, I do!” Shuhua eagerly reassured her, nodding her head rapidly. The girl was definitely calmer than she’d been in the park, but she was still fidgety and impatient in a way that could only be instinctual. “I eat a lot—really a lot! Minnie always says I eat twice as much as her, but that’s not true because I saw her eat a whole deer once.”

Soojin decided not to point out the fact that Shuhua had let the name of her friend slip. She didn’t want the girl to feel too bad. Soojin smiled at her thoughts—since when did she care what this wolf felt? She must be going crazy.

“Okay, well, have as much as you want. I’ll probably throw out the rest before I leave.”

Shuhua paused in her perusal of the canned fish, looking up. “You’re leaving?”

“Mhm,” Soojin hummed, nodding. “I don’t think this town is a good match for me anymore.” Read: she didn’t want to stay in a dead man’s house anymore. Also, she wanted to do her own research into what was going on with Miyeon. With luck, she wouldn’t have to go looking for her in Europe—maybe she could see what the coven rumor mills were saying on the East Coast.

“Oh…” Shuhua’s gaze dropped to her feet. She almost sounded… sad?

“What’s with the long face, Yeh Shuhua?” She teased. “I gave you the intel you wanted.”

“I know, but… I was hoping I could come see you again.”

Soojin blinked in surprise. Oh.

“You think you’d have time to see me when you’re on your way to Europe?”

“I meant after,” the girl muttered, scuffing her feet on the tiled floor. “Only if you wanted to though—I wasn’t going to stalk you again or anything, that was only this one time.”

Soojin scoffed at the ridiculous remark. But she could see the sincerity on Shuhua’s face as plain as day.

Maybe…

Soojin wasn’t stupid, but maybe… maybe she could throw her a bone. Pun-intended.

“What if I want you to track me down?” She airily suggested, tamping down her own reaction when Shuhua’s face split into a wide grin. “You seemed to be pretty good at it.”

“I am!” Shuhua chirped with equal parts pride and hope. “It’s because I only lived with wolves for so long. I’m really good at it, I promise!”

“Okay… then…” Soojin trailed off as she walked over to the mug of blood she’d poured for herself earlier. She sipped at it in a bid to stall time, enjoying making the other girl wait. Strange, the werewolf smell wasn’t as bothersome now as it had been before. Maybe it did get better with time, maybe she just had to give it a chance. “When you come back… look for me,” Soojin said with a hint of a smile. She leaned back against the counter, watching Shuhua across from her. “I won’t tell you where to look and I won’t give you anything of mine besides the button you already have.” She knew that it was almost impossible to do what she was asking of Shuhua right now. But, for some reason, she had a feeling that the werewolf could do it. She certainly seemed up for the challenge. “Will that be a problem?” She finished off with a raise of an eyebrow.

“No, no problem,” Shuhua shook her head with a smile, not looking even the slightest bit worried.

“Alright then. I’ll trust you, Shuhua.” Soojin sipped at her mug once more, before lowering her voice to add, “Don’t betray my trust.” She meant that for Miyeon first and foremost, but also for whatever the future had in store for the two of them.

“I won’t.” Their gazes met for a long moment, and then Shuhua turned back to the buffet and that was the end of that. “Seo Soojin…” the girl muttered to herself, playing with how the words sounded on her lips. “Seo… Soojin…”

“Hmm?”

“Nothing. It’s a pretty name.”

Soojin scoffed, burying her nose in the scent of blood coming from her mug. And maybe also hiding her face at the same time. “Eat your food and be quiet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some sooshu for your reading pleasure this time round
> 
> got a lot I'm currently working on (*whispers* there's a mishu fic coming), so I wrote this up so I'd have something to post this weekend haha  
> as always, drop your thoughts and feelings below fam :)
> 
> P.S. can anyone guess which year/event we'll be going to next? :P


	4. Woodstock (in the trailer in the desert), part 3 - 1975

**_Chapter: 4 – Woodstock (in the trailer in the desert), part 3 - 1975_ **

_“Might as well get it out of your system now before tonight.”_

Miyeon stepped boldly out of the motel room, her eyes never leaving that trailer. As she walked over to that metal monstrosity, her skin started glowing in the sun, giving her an almost ethereal presence.

And when she stopped in front of her ex-girlfriend, Kim Minnie, she saw how the pink-haired werewolf’s eyes widened in appreciation.

“You knew I was coming,” Miyeon said, breaking the tense silence between them.

“No,” Minnie drawled out, smirking up at her. “But I hoped.”

“Oh? Soojin didn’t tell you?”

The younger girl scoffed, leaning back even more on her arms. Miyeon couldn’t help the way her eyes followed the movement too, taking in the sparkly see-through pants, the layered bohemian top that left her midriff and shoulders exposed, and the metal spikes that dangerously poked through her hair. Miyeon had known the girl for centuries, but seeing her now after all these years felt strangely… new. “Soojin was a rock, didn’t so much as whisper a word about where you were,” Minnie revealed. “Things were different this time.”

“Different?” Miyeon wondered aloud, folding her arms across her chest. “How?”

“Well, for one, I knew you were gonna leave. After Woodstock, it wasn’t a matter of _if_ , just _when_.”

“I see.”

“And just like I knew you’d leave… I also knew you’d come back,” Minnie said, tilting her head in a teasing manner. “Not if, but when.”

Miyeon narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t try to look for me this time,” she pointed out, knowing that it might sound like she was complaining.

“No, I didn’t.”

“Because you… _knew_ , is that it?”

“That’s right,” Minnie nodded easily, her smile never leaving her face.

Miyeon clenched her jaw as she looked at Minnie’s carefree expression, wanting to wipe it clean off her face. This was a game that Minnie always won. The wolf knew just how to push her buttons, knew how to rile her up well past the point of no return. And that usually produced one of two outcomes. Either it made Miyeon so mad that she left the wolf or it made Miyeon so mad that she fucked the wolf. And, judging by the fact that she hadn’t stormed off in a fit of rage yet, Miyeon was willing to bet that it’d be the latter this time.

But the vampire wouldn’t make it easy. She was still mad. Even though she knew how this story would end, she held on to that fire that told her to fight back. Because they had to break this cycle some time, right?

Only fools did the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. Repeating history like a broken record—they’d fight, break up, get back together again, then fight, break up and get back together again.

Yes, they were slaves to their baser instincts, but they could definitely _try_.

Try and… maybe not change, but just do something different.

And so Miyeon decided that she wouldn’t be the first one to break this time. She’d hold her temper, she’d play Minnie’s game, but she wouldn’t give in. Miyeon didn’t know how she was going to pull it off, but she wouldn’t let Minnie win.

She decided to push some buttons too. “I assume this trailer’s yours?” Miyeon questioned rhetorically. She glanced up at said trailer and scoffed at the patchy silver paintjob. “I’d say it’s not really your style, but after Woodstock I guess it makes sense.” She saw Minnie’s grin fade into a pout out of the corner of her eye, but went on, “It probably holds the smoke pretty well, doesn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t know,” the wolf sniffed, indignant. “I don’t use it for that kind of stuff."

“Oh? What do you use it for then?”

Minnie hesitated for a long moment. Then she gracefully pulled herself up to stand in the open doorway of the trailer, looking down at Miyeon with an unreadable expression on her face. She observed the vampire for a bit longer before finally saying, “I can show you… if you want.”

There was a challenge in her eyes that Miyeon just knew she had to say yes to. So she did. “… Okay.”

Minnie stuck her hand out to help the vampire up, even though they both knew she didn’t need it. But Miyeon took the hand anyway, and let herself be pulled right back in to their centuries-old dance. Except, she wasn’t going to lose this time.

Once inside the trailer, Miyeon saw that the décor was even more garish than she could’ve imagined. Clashing patterns and fabrics were everywhere, there was at least one dreamcatcher hanging by a window and the string of lights draped over the bed(?) looked to be the only working non-sun light source in the entire space. It was all very, _very_ different from the sophisticated fashion and art scenes Miyeon had been part of in Europe. It almost felt like a fever dream.

“What do you think?” Minnie asked, sounding a tad nervous.

And Miyeon had to swallow back just about every word that came to mind. Instead, she settled on, “It’s… different.”

“I know,” the wolf admitted, shutting the door behind her. She then moved further into the cabin and pulled the curtains closed around the windows. And then she turned on the string of Christmas lights. “I sold the car and bought this from an old lady 3 years ago.” She sat down on the—bed? Couch? Mattress covered in blankets that had seen better days? And she smiled up at Miyeon who still hadn’t moved from her spot by the door. “It’s been very healing for me.”

“You sold the car?” Miyeon was still stuck on that one little detail. Her pretty little convertible had been kicked to the curb for this?

“Yes. You left the car, so I sold the car,” Minnie shrugged. “I needed something different.” Then she cracked a smile at the freaked out look on the vampire’s face. “That’s how Soojin reacted to it too.”

And Miyeon was at once angry at and thankful for her vampire friend. She blamed Soojin for not warning her about the tragedy that had befallen her precious car, but at the same time she was grateful that the girl hadn’t made her aware of this horror on wheels.

“And Shuhua?” Miyeon asked, taking a brave step forward.

“Oh, she loves it.” Of course she would. Soojin’s and Shuhua’s tastes were night and day, really. It was a wonder they’d managed to overcome their natural and supernatural differences to start dating. She’d always thought those two together were the eighth wonder of the world. “Come on, it’s not that bad,” Minnie proclaimed, shuffling to one side and patting the seat beside her. She wanted Miyeon to sit there? In this outfit? Miyeon raised an eyebrow at the girl, but Minnie just rolled her eyes in response. “Seriously, just turn your brain off for a second and enjoy it with me.”

Minnie’s smile had lost a great deal of its smugness, letting Miyeon see the more natural side of the wolf that she loved. And in that moment, Miyeon couldn’t deny that she’d missed this.

So, she decided to do as Minnie said.

Miyeon carefully sat down next to her, turned off her brain with great effort and looked around at Minnie’s new space. It did feel a bit… soothing.

“You said it’s been healing for you?” Miyeon gently asked some time later, remembering something the girl had mentioned before.

“Yeah,” Minnie agreed, closing her eyes. She pulled her legs up to sit cross-legged on the couch slash bed, then gradually fell into some kind of trance. “I use it for meditation and… just clearing my mind when I can…”

Miyeon watched the girl carefully, mesmerized by how peaceful she looked.

“It’s good for me,” Minnie continued, taking deep, slow breaths. “It helps me focus… and I feel like a better mentor for Shuhua… Or maybe… it’s just all in my head.” She cracked a smile at that, and Miyeon smiled along too.

“Maybe,” she allowed.

Minnie let out a deep exhale and finally opened her eyes again, staring straight ahead. “That other stuff,” she started, furrowing her brows slightly. “I haven’t done any of that since Woodstock, by the way.”

Miyeon nodded, knowing that there was a tiny apology in there too. “Instead you’ve been meditating.”

“More or less.”

“Have you found God?” The question slipped past Miyeon’s lips easily and aroused a shared smile between the two of them. They’d witnessed the ins and outs of religion through the years, often falling on the wrong side of the altar. For either of them to take up the practice would be an incredible feat.

“Not yet,” Minnie answered coyly. “Soon.”

“Mhm, be sure to tell me when you do.”

Miyeon let her hand come up naturally to Minnie’s hair as she spoke. She was curious about the metal accessories sticking out of her braids. The werewolf looked down and watched her hand move over the sharp tips. “Very edgy,” the vampire commented.

Minnie rolled her eyes. “You’re so funny,” she deadpanned.

Miyeon chuckled, but didn’t reply. She chose instead to let her hand continue wandering. Feeling each spike and then finally letting the braid fall back down over the girl’s shoulder. She watched the braid settle, then picked it up again and flicked it back down that much harder. Hard enough that the spikes would’ve probably scratched Minnie’s skin if she were human. She wasn’t.

But Minnie still played along and let out a hardly convincing, “Ouch.”

“It’s okay,” Miyeon whispered, swooping in and lightly kissing the skin on her shoulder where she’d hit.

Minnie sucked in a _very_ convincing breath then.

And Miyeon knew that whatever game she’d been hoping to win had definitely ended by now. It probably hadn’t ever really started, to be honest. There were no winners or losers here, just the two of them finding each other again after a season apart. Discovering that important pieces of them had changed, but the whole remained mostly the same. And how far this new change would carry them into the future—well, they’d just have to wait and see.

Miyeon’s hand kept moving, landing on Minnie’s lips this time.

She touched the lip piercing she found there, watching her fingers move instead of meeting Minnie’s burning gaze.

“What’s this?” She asked slowly, deliberately. Then she tugged lightly at the stud when no answer immediately came. “This is new.”

Minnie barely moved her lips as she spoke. “You’ve never seen it in Europe?” She carefully asked. But Miyeon wasn’t having any of that.

“Hmm?” She fully trapped the bottom lip between her thumb and forefinger, and pulled it steadily towards her. She could feel Minnie’s quick breaths puff up against the tip of her thumb. “I didn’t hear that.”

“You…”

Miyeon tugged more insistently now, forcing Minnie to move her whole body to follow the action. The intoxicated wolf didn’t look like she minded much, though.

They were now so much closer than they’d been before, barely inches apart. And finally Miyeon looked up to meet those charged eyes. There wasn’t any question about where they stood now. Miyeon prodded with her fingers and her words, “You were saying.”

“You…” Minnie started and then completely surprised Miyeon by closing her lips around the thumb in her mouth. She bit down roughly on the tip—hard enough to elicit a gasp from the vampire. Then she quickly moved to soothe it with her tongue, lapping at the trapped digit, never once breaking eye contact with the other girl. Almost belatedly, she decided to finish her question. “… Didn’t have this in Europe?” And the way she moved her tongue in between her words promised a million answers all at once.

No, Miyeon didn’t have this in Europe. That’s why she came back, after all. For this.

Instead of replying, Miyeon decided to cut right to the chase.

She pulled her hand away and immediately replaced it with her mouth. Kissing those pierced lips with every ounce of her being. And Minnie was right there to meet her. Pushing back against the sudden tide, moving with the familiarity of a lifetime together.

Minnie cupped the back of Miyeon’s neck and made it a point to remind her of what she’d been missing these past few years. Starting off slow and deep, then quickly devolving into a frantic and messy rhythm. And then Minnie decided to show off some new tricks with her new piercing and Miyeon felt like she was about to lose her mind.

She felt her body move down, down, down until she was lying on that couch with a very hot and impatient wolf hovering over her.

She grasped at the exposed skin of Minnie’s back and she could feel her entire body vibrating through her fingertips. And then the growling started.

Miyeon briefly pulled her lips away to rush out, “You can’t—no growling—”

But Minnie had already sealed their mouths back together, hands trying to find purchase on Miyeon’s overly complicated dress. And no, the growling didn’t stop. Instead it got louder, reaching an almost steady thrum in the metal trailer.

So Miyeon bit down hard on Minnie’s pierced lip in warning, prompting a pained yelp from the girl. She glared up at the wolf once they separated. “No growling,” she sternly reminded her. Maybe when they weren’t within a hundred feet of at least two other supernatural beings.

“I can’t stop it,” Minnie huffed out, almost whining. “It’s—It’s a full moon tonight.”

“Full moon…” Miyeon repeated, and then her eyes widened when she realized what that meant. “A full moon. Shuhua. Soojin said you were planning on taking her out—”

“Later,” Minnie interrupted, trying to close the distance and get back to their previous activities. But Miyeon’s brain wasn’t full-moon crazy, so she still had the presence of mind to know they had to stop.

She pushed back firmly against Minnie’s chest, ignoring the pitiful whine that followed.

“No,” Miyeon got out as she struggled to sit up. “You promised her.”

“And I’ll take her out later, so don’t worry—”

“You’re not going to leave an inexperienced werewolf by herself on a full moon. Not in a motel full of humans.” And with one final push, Miyeon managed to get herself out from underneath Minnie and away from the heat of temptation. She tried to calm herself down while she straightened back out her dress. She scowled at the long tear in the fabric she found on her side—what did Minnie have against zippers?

“Ugh!” Minnie groaned out in frustration, knowing that she’d lost the battle this time. She flopped back onto the couch slash bed slash couch, still breathing heavily.

“You promised,” Miyeon reminded her with a hidden smile.

“I know, I know.”

“And I know how much you cherish being a good mentor for Shuhua,” she teased.

Minnie leveled her with a sharp glare, scowling at the pleased expression on the vampire’s face. “You know me so well,” she sarcastically replied.

But Miyeon decided to answer her honestly. “You’re right, I do.”

They looked at each other for a long moment—Minnie’s gaze softening and her lips pulling up into a loving smile, and Miyeon returning the sentiment in full.

Minnie finally let out a deep breath and raised her hand up to just reach Miyeon’s arm. Miyeon moved back just enough so that their hands could meet, interlocking between them.

They didn’t say anything after that, because they didn’t have to. They could feel it between them.

It was good to be home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh yeah, gotta love full moon shenanigans
> 
> drop your thoughts and feelings fam :)


	5. Woodstock (at the ranch in the desert), part 4 - 1975

**_Chapter: 5 – Woodstock (at the ranch in the desert), part 4 - 1975_ **

“Yeah, we got a couple o’ rooms free, just on the other side of that trailer out there.” The clerk gestured to the hunk of metal currently sitting in the middle of the lot. “It’s dark out, so I can show you if you want.”

“No need,” Soyeon said as she lifted her suitcase onto the counter. “How much?”

She flipped the latches on the side, then opened the suitcase to show off the stacks of money stuffed inside. The clerk’s eyes went wide.

“Now hold on a second there, young lady…”

“Why?” She smirked. “You were all set to walk me to my room two seconds ago.” She slipped her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket, raising her chin in challenge. “You don’t want my money?”

“No, I do,” he carefully said. She noticed the way he angled his body towards the corner of his desk. Like there was something underneath there that he wanted to keep within reach. Probably his gun. “I don’t need that much, is all.”

Soyeon bared her teeth in a sorry excuse for a grin. “Well, I _want_ to give you _all_ of it,” she declared. “Consider it a gift… For your services and your… discretion.” She watched him like a hawk, not taking her eyes off him even for a second. And he did the same. “I might stay for a while,” she added after a moment. “Is that alright?”

The office was dead silent, not even a stray breeze through the open window came by to disturb them. And Soyeon could only smile. This was fun.

Finally, the clerk moved. He reached down underneath the counter and Soyeon tensed in anticipation. Was she faster than a gun? She hadn’t tested that theory out in a while. But instead of the shotgun she knew was there, the clerk pulled out a small key on a bright yellow coiled rubber keyring. He stiffly handed it over to the waiting girl. “Room 109.”

She nodded in gratitude as she took it from him. “I appreciate it.”

She spun the key on her finger as she turned to leave, but then stopped when she remembered something. She could see the way he tensed up at her sudden movement, but Soyeon just smiled.

“My car broke down just up the road… D’you think you could take a look at it for me?”

He pursed his lips, but tipped his hat in her direction. “First thing in the morning, ma’am.”

“Sounds swell,” she said as she finally walked out of that stifling office. “Let’s hope it’s still there.”

\--

The first place that Soyeon went to was not her rented motel room. As frustrated and tired as she was, she had other business to attend to.

She walked across the front yard, eyeing the silver trailer as she passed it by. She couldn’t hear anything from inside, but she didn’t need to. She’d smelled that signature werewolf scent from the moment she’d left her car, almost a mile away.

They weren’t being particularly careful out here, were they?

And almost right on cue, a high-pitched howl ripped through the stillness of the night. Soyeon stopped in her tracks and tilted her head towards where the sound had come from. It was behind the motel, most likely in that little thicket of trees. The sound trailed off and she didn’t hear much after that. No birds flying away in fright, no woodland creatures fleeing their homes and, most importantly, no concerned motel guests complaining about the noise. That only confirmed what Soyeon had suspected. They’d been here for a while.

“Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy,” she tsked to herself as she resumed walking. “Miyeon, this isn’t like you,” she chastised, her words dripping with fake concern. “It’s almost too easy.”

She stuffed her hands in her jacket and resolved to enjoy the rest of her little journey through the desert. Letting the cool night air blow away the mugginess of the past few days she’d spent on the road. It was kind of nice finally having her goal so close after all this time.

She skipped over a sand dune and let her feet slide down the other side. She was far from the motel now, even farther than her car was in the other direction. But that was fine.

Almost as an afterthought, she glanced down beside her at the horse tracks she’d been following this entire time. They were a lot of them and they overlapped heavily. But the size and consistency suggested that it wasn’t multiple horses that had made these. No, just one. Just one horse who’d made this exact same trip over and over again. In both directions. For how many days it’d been since the last rainfall in these parts. And probably for much longer before that, too.

After almost an hour of walking, Soyeon finally saw the end of the path she’d been following. Her destination was right up ahead, marked by a bent and rusty old sign in the sand.

 _Song Ranch_.

She titled her head at the name. That definitely hadn’t been on any maps she’d seen. But neither was that motel she’d come from, so that wasn’t saying much.

Once she walked up to the sign, she was finally able to see the stables and ranch house in the distance. She sighed once she realized she was about to walk into a place that probably smelled even worse than werewolves ever could. Soyeon really, really didn’t like animals. At all. But for some reason, these were the kind of assignments she kept getting. How irritating.

About ten minutes later, Soyeon was standing on the doorstep of the ranch house. Staring up at the wooden door.

“Knock, knock,” she muttered to herself as she lifted her hand to do just that—

“Who’s there?” Came a sudden voice.

Soyeon nearly jumped out of her skin. She snatched her hand back and quickly looked around the porch, trying to find where the voice had come from. She’d thought she was alone out here. She wasn’t scared, she just didn’t like being snuck up on.

“Seriously, did I scare you?” The voice chuckled freely. “The way you were walking up here, I didn’t think anything could scare you.”

Soyeon grit her teeth. She wasn’t scared. But now, she knew exactly where her hidden ‘friend’ was. She left the porch and walked a few steps back up the dirt track, then she turned to face the house.

There.

Sitting on the sloping roof, half-hidden behind the lone chimney was the culprit. Soyeon couldn’t make out much of what they looked like in the darkness, but she knew they were female by the sound of their voice and she could see the outline of a cowboy hat on their head.

Soyeon put on a cheery half-smile on her face. “Why don’t you come down here so we can talk?”

“What’s that look on your face?” The roof girl boisterously replied, pointing right at Soyeon. “Is that supposed to be a smile? What is that?”

Soyeon’s smile dropped like a rock. She bared her teeth as her frustration increased. “Maybe you’re having trouble seeing because of the poor light up there,” she suggested in a steely voice. “Get down.”

“So what? You can stab me with that pointy knife sticking out of your pocket? What even is that? Is it real?”

Soyeon glanced down at the knife on her waistband. Her jacket should’ve been completely covering it. How did the girl know it was there?

She decided not to bother hiding it. “It’s real.”

“Wow…” It looked like the girl shifted a bit closer, at least that’s what she could make out from the movement of her cowboy hat. “Why not just get a gun? That’s what everybody’s using these days.”

“Oh? Do you have a gun?”

“No,” the girl replied sounding proud of her answer. “I don’t need one.”

Soyeon’s smile came back to her face. “Well, me neither.” And then, in one fluid motion, she unclipped her harness, pulled out her knife, and _threw it_ in the girl’s direction.

“What the—?!”

Before she knew it, the knife slammed into the chimney with a loud _thwack_ , sticking out of the brick like a beacon. It landed barely a foot away from the girl’s face, but Soyeon wasn’t worried. That’s exactly where she’d been aiming.

“Are you insane?!” The girl roared, scrambling back and away from where Soyeon stood at the front of the house.

“No, but I need to talk to you. And you were worried that I’d stab you, so there.” She gestured to the knife that was still vibrating where it had landed. “Now you have my stabbing implement, what more do you want?” She tried to look as welcoming as an armed stranger suddenly coming to your house at the middle of the night could look. Which was not very. “You can come down now.”

“Ah, you’re seriously crazy—who just throws a knife like—wow, you almost stopped my heart, you crazy little—”

Soyeon rolled her eyes. She’d had enough. She boldly walked back up the path towards the house.

“Hey! You! Where do you think you’re going?!”

Soyeon briefly stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth. It was an interesting habit she’d picked up these days. She knew it made her look like a cheeky little shit, but what was a life full of long, miserable missions if she didn’t have a little fun here or there. And the tongue thing almost always meant that she was about to have some fun.

“I’m going into your house, I’ll wait for you in there.”

“You can’t just—”

But cowboy hat girl needed to understand something very important about Soyeon, She _could_ and she most definitely _would_.

Her eyes scanned over the front porch and quickly found something she could use. A small outdoors settee, covered in plastic to ward off the elements. But it was no match for Soyeon. She plucked up the piece of furniture—that was almost the same size as her—and stormed up to the wooden door. With a strength that didn’t match how exhausted she really was, she _smashed_ the settee into the door, rattling the entire doorframe in the process. The door didn’t break, but that wouldn’t last. She reared back for another hit—

“Wait, wait!” Cowboy hat girl sounded a lot closer now, like she was right behind Soyeon. “Stop, stop, stop, don’t break it, wait, I have a key!” She frantically declared as she tried to push her way in between Soyeon and her poor, innocent door. “I have a key, see? I can open it, just wait a second.”

Soyeon cocked her head to the side. “My key’s bigger though.”

“ _That_ —” the girl whirled around and angrily pointed at the settee still in Soyeon’s hands. “—is not a key. So just… just put it back down, okay? Just… let me do this.” The girl had probably realized just how close she now was to what seemed to be a very violent stranger. She gulped as she turned back to her door and tried to open it.

Soyeon smiled, almost a real one this time, and obediently put back the stolen furniture. By the time she looked back, the door was open. And cowboy hat girl was staring at her expectantly. “Shoes off, by the way.”

“As you wish.” Soyeon dutifully took off her shoes as she stepped inside, looking around at the place. Cowboy hat girl was already moving about, turning on lights and lamps and such. It all looked nice. Very… homey. She noticed that the girl closed the joining doors, though, fully intending to keep this encounter confined to the entryway alone. That was fine, too. There were more than enough seats out here.

Soyeon sat down on the nearest couch, her feet almost disappearing in the rug laid out in front of it. Yes, this was _very_ nice.

“Did you bring my knife down with you?” Soyeon asked to start them off. Cowboy hat girl only glared back at her in response. She’d taken a seat too, though it was practically on the other side of the room. “No? That’s fine.” Soyeon leaned back in her seat, letting her body finally start to relax. “But, I must warn you, there are some not so friendly creatures roaming around in these woods of yours. Very scary. If I don’t have my knife, then… Anything could happen.”

Cowboy hat girl scoffed. “Nothing’s going to happen. We’ve been living out here just fine without you or your big knife.”

“Really?” Soyeon tilted her head, as if pondering her response. “How long?”

“Long enough,” the girl answered firmly.

And yes, that absolutely confirmed Soyeon’s suspicions.

Soyeon traced a finger over the fabric of the cushion next to her. “You know, it usually doesn’t end well when humans get mixed up in these affairs…” She bared her teeth in her signature smile, knowing the sight alone was usually enough to drive home her point. “Sometimes they get in the way and they need to be… removed.”

“Are you threatening me?” The girl heatedly asked.

“Are you human?” Soyeon fired back not even a second later. “Answer me that and I’ll tell you what I’m doing here. You’re curious, right?” She raised a brow at the girl. “And even though you know I’m not _one of them_ , you’re still a little scared.” She nodded to herself. “That’s right, you should be.”

Cowboy hat girl’s hands tightened in her lap. “Who are you?”

“Jeon Soyeon, vampire hunter,” she responded without hesitation. “Now, you.”

“… My name is Song Yuqi—”

“Are you human?” She didn’t need a name, that wasn’t worth anything in her line of work.

Yuqi gulped and bowed her head. Then she nervously answered, “Yes.”

Soyeon narrowed her eyes and forced her tired body to sit up. “You don’t sound too sure about that Miss Yuqi.”

“I am,” she firmly responded. “I’m human.”

“Really? I saw you in Woodstock. On a horse.” Soyeon tried not to sneer at the mention of the smelly animal, but she doubted she was successful. “What were you doing way up there?”

Yuqi bit her lip and Soyeon followed the motion with her hawk-like eyes. The girl wasn’t trained, so her body had all sorts of tells. It was obvious she wasn’t telling the entire truth. Glaringly obvious. Soyeon knew that. And so she didn’t really need to be watching her so closely, but she did.

“Well, I like music… and I like horses, so…”

Soyeon scoffed. “I guess what I’m asking is how you got all the way up there on your horse. Seems a pretty long ride for anybody, even someone as experienced as you. Doesn’t seem to be too kind on the horse either.” And then she cut right to the chase. She was far too tired to keep beating around the bush like this. “Just how human are you, Miss Yuqi?”

Yuqi looked like she was almost sweating buckets underneath her cowboy hat. She pulled it off her head and mopped at her forehead with a handkerchief. Then she settled the hat in her lap.

“Just so we’re clear, um… what percentage do you need?”

Soyeon felt her lips curling into another ‘smile’. Now they were getting somewhere. “What percentage do I need for what?”

“To not, you know—” And then Yuqi made a vague slashing motion with her hand. “So you don’t hack me up with your knife.”

“Well, I am a vampire hunter, so…” She let the implication hang in the air for a moment before she continued, “How human are we talking?”

“About fifty percent? At least, I mean! There could be more but I’m only really sure about half of it, so… fifty?”

Soyeon leaned back in her seat, letting herself get comfortable. This mission just got at least fifty percent more interesting, it seemed.

“And the rest?”

Yuqi screwed up her face in thought. “My great-grandma had some werewolf in her, but I only found out once I inherited the house. And then there was some wolf on my great-uncle’s side too, but they weren’t very close with the family. And then, um… my mom had some, uh… some, some vampire blood I think. Well, I don’t think, I _know_ she did. She told me. And she… only ate raw meat, so…”

She was gripping the cowboy hat tightly in her hands, a clear sign of her nerves. As she finished speaking, she warily looked up at Soyeon. _Was that enough_ , her eyes seemed to ask. And honestly… Soyeon had no idea. She’d never met somebody like Yuqi before. She was a vampire hunter, but she wasn’t sure that this girl could fit into her target description.

“And what about you?” Soyeon finally responded. “Do you eat raw meat?”

“No, I’m a vegetarian.”

And all Soyeon could do was laugh. This wasn’t what she’d expected at all. She’d met a few hybrids here and there, she’d heard the stories too. But she’d never met someone with such a mixed family tree before. She was sure there was probably something else in Yuqi’s blood too, something her family chose not to share with a young child. It was possible.

But for Soyeon, this meant she was at a crossroads now.

She’d come to this ranch with the hopes of interrogating someone who’d been seen with her primary targets. Someone who was most likely still in contact with them. But did this mean that she now had to add one more target to the list? Or was she just supposed to look past this little hiccup?

Her mission directive was clear. But Yuqi was not.

In any case, Soyeon decided it would probably be in her best interests to ingratiate herself with her new ‘friend’. Especially on a full moon like tonight where anything could happen. She hadn’t been lying earlier, by the way. She’d definitely be retrieving her knife back from the roof as soon as possible.

Soyeon sighed. She really was too tired for this.

“Is that why you were up on the roof tonight? Because of the full moon?”

Yuqi shrugged. “I’m not sure. Maybe? Sometimes I feel drawn to things like that, you know?”

“Mhm.” No, she did not know. But Soyeon just nodded all the same.

“So, uh… are you going to kill me?”

Soyeon ‘smiled’ again. “What if I say yes? How are you going to stop me?”

“I have ways, I have ways,” Yuqi insisted. And Soyeon was kind enough not to point out her giant bluff. Or maybe she was just too tired—that was probably the real reason. She wasn’t _kind_. “And I have some pretty scary friends in high places too. Not that I need them, but if I did, then… You better watch out.”

Soyeon found herself laughing again at the other girl and the makings of a real smile found its way to her face this time. This entire experience was definitely something new.

And this girl too.

Yuqi looked like she couldn’t hurt a fly, but she talked with the bluster of one of the creatures that Soyeon _did_ hunt. That made her such an interesting paradox. And it made Soyeon want to know more about her for reasons not at all related to her mission. But she didn’t think about that.

Instead, she focused on something the girl had said. The fact that she could call upon her ‘friends in high places’ anytime she wanted. If those friends were who she thought they were… Well, that would certainly make things a lot easier for Soyeon. She could do it right now if she wanted. Threaten Yuqi’s life until she cried wolf, or vampire, or both.

She could do it right now…

But she was way too tired for anything more than a long nap. Or maybe even a full-night’s sleep. That sounded nice.

Soyeon regarded the girl across from her. She could use her and exploit her for her own goals… or…

“How about we make a deal?” Soyeon muttered, her eyes growing heavier by the minute.

“What kind of deal?” Yuqi was rightfully suspicious.

“I’ll leave you alone and let you go back on the roof to stare at the moon or whatever… and I’ll stay down here and guard the house for you, but,” Soyeon held up her finger. “I’ll need my knife back.”

Yuqi scoffed in disbelief. “What kind of a deal is that?! This is my house!”

“Fine, you can keep the knife. But only till morning.”

Yuqi got to her feet. “Well, isn’t that much better—Hello?! Miss Soyeon? Do I need to remind you again whose house this is? Not yours, okay? Not yours, but mine. Property of Song Yuqi—”

“That’s my final offer, Song Yuqi,” Soyeon said, closing her eyes and letting her hands fall to rest on her stomach. She felt absurdly comfortable right now. If she fell asleep right here, she’d probably have some nice, pleasant vampire hunting dreams too. Wouldn’t that be nice…? “I suggest you accept the deal now while I’m incapacitated. I won’t be this kind to you when I wake up.”

“Oh, wow, _wow_! Now you want to sleep here too? _Wow_!”

Soyeon felt her lips curl up into a smile. Not the one she usually wore on hunting missions, but the one that she’d come to wear often around Yuqi. Maybe it was just because she was so tired. Yeah, that was probably the real reason.

Without really meaning to, Soyeon soon found herself drifting off into some kind of slumber. She wasn’t fully asleep yet, but she could feel her mind was already miles away. So maybe she just imagined the sound of angry footsteps stomping across the entryway. Maybe she imagined the feeling of her trusty knife being slipped between her fingers. Maybe she imagined a particular cowboy hat girl begrudgingly saying the words, “Here’s your stupid knife.”

In any case, it turned out she was right.

She did have some good dreams that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> baby's first attempts at writing yuyeon lol  
> didn't expect them to make it into the story when I started out, but here we are folks
> 
> looks like the gang's all together in the desert now, I wonder what'll happen...
> 
> drop your thoughts and feelings :)


	6. Woodstock (the last of the desert), part 5 - 1975

**_Chapter 6 – Woodstock (the last of the desert), part 5 - 1975_ **

Miyeon usually spent full moons by herself.

Even during the years when she was dating Minnie, she made it a point to not be around the girl on those nights. Every single bad werewolf habit seemed amplified tenfold on full moons. The growling, the fidgeting, the impatience, the jealousy, the possessiveness, the clinginess… the passion, the intensity, the stamina…

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t all that bad.

But as good and… _rewarding…_ as full moons could be, more often than not they just left Miyeon annoyed with how Minnie had behaved.

So, for the sake of their recently rekindled romance, the vampire chose not to follow Minnie and Shuhua out on their wolf run. Instead, she and Soojin stayed up all night (which was nothing new because they never slept anyways) watching bad TV and gossiping about their canine companions.

“She does this thing sometimes when she wakes up…” Soojin was saying. She was still lounging on her bed, looking like she probably hadn’t moved since Miyeon had seen her that morning. “She pretends she has no idea where she is… so she ‘follows the scent of the love of her life’ until she rolls over and sees me...” Soojin paused for a second and Miyeon was positive she would’ve blushed if she were human. “It’s dumb,” the girl finished with a roll of her eyes, but the smile on her face said otherwise.

“It’s cute,” Miyeon commented from her spot on the bed beside her. She honestly loved Soojin’s and Shuhua’s relationship. It was so… pure. Well, as pure as a vampire and werewolf together could be, but still. “It’s been how long for you guys now?”

“Almost sixteen years.”

“Wow… Feels like just yesterday you were writing to me about this girl you were really into, but ‘oh no, she smells so bad Miyeon, what do I do?’”

Soojin reached over and slapped her shoulder as Miyeon broke out in laughter. “I didn’t say it like that.”

“No? Want me to find the letters?”

Soojin huffed in annoyance, but decided not to challenge her. Instead, she admitted, “She found out one time, you know… about the smell.”

“Really?” Miyeon moved so she was lying on her side facing the other girl. She propped her head up with one hand and used the other to toy with a nearby pillow. “You mean, she didn’t know?”

Soojin shook her head. “I was her first real non-wolf friend ever since she turned, so…”

“Hmm, I guess that makes sense,” Miyeon mused. “Minnie should have warned her, though.”

“Maybe.”

Miyeon picked up on how distracted the other girl sounded. “What?”

“Nothing,” Soojin denied. Then she added on, almost as an afterthought, “For like a whole week she was bathing five times a day. I had to tell her to stop.”

“She really likes you.”

“Mhm.”

Miyeon waited a moment before she decided to ask again, “What are you thinking?”

Soojin pursed her lips. She briefly glanced over at Miyeon, as if contemplating whether or not to say whatever was on her mind. Then she looked back to the TV, but her eyes were far away, obviously not seeing a thing on the screen. It took another ten minutes for her to finally say something.

“I’m her first real non-wolf friend,” she said, repeating her words from before.

“I wouldn’t say you were friends…”

“But I’m her first.” Soojin bit her lip. “I just think about that sometimes.”

Miyeon watched her friend carefully. “Why?”

“Because…”

“You think you’re some kind of novelty?”

Soojin’s brow furrowed and she didn’t respond immediately. Almost five whole minutes later, she reluctantly nodded. It was times like this that Miyeon was made even more aware of just how much they’d changed as vampires. Humans were fickle, impatient. They were rash with their time because they didn’t have much of it. But as a vampire… she could ask a question and wait as long as was necessary for the answer to come. Whether that be five seconds or five hours. As long as it came eventually, it didn’t matter to her how long it took. Having all the time in the world meant that there was no benchmark anymore for how long was ‘too long’.

It also meant that a sixteen-year coupling could still have all the trappings and insecurities of a new relationship.

Miyeon chose her words carefully. “Shuhua’s learning a lot right now. It’s going to take her some time to fully integrate back into society… Having someone she knows and trusts will help her a lot.”

“I know.”

“But that doesn’t have to be you.”

Soojin looked up at her in thinly-veiled surprise.

Miyeon went on, “It should be Minnie. She’s the one that took her out of Alaska, she’s the one who…” Miyeon bit back the words on her lips, not wanting to cast more blame on Minnie and over-complicate matters. She decided to focus on the obvious. “They’re in a pack now, that’s literally her job.”

“So you’re telling me to do… what? Leave?”

“If you want to.”

Miyeon knew she probably sounded callous, but she wanted to be honest. She had more experience as a vampire and as someone who was dating a werewolf—both areas that Soojin often looked to her to for advice. Their cases were different, sure, but she wanted to help her friend as much as she could.

“You’re worried she only likes you because you’re her first—that it’s going to wear off soon, right?”

The younger vampire reluctantly nodded.

“Then leave,” Miyeon repeated. “You can always come back. _Later_ ,” she emphasized.

Soojin closed her eyes. “I don’t know… Doesn’t that seem a bit… manipulative?”

“You’re just protecting yourself.”

She could tell that Soojin wasn’t convinced, though. And honestly, she wasn’t expecting her to be. As much as Soojin was Shuhua’s first, the same could be said the other way around. Soojin wasn’t even a century old yet. She was still quite young. And though she’d lived around far more humans than Shuhua ever had, Shuhua was still technically her first wolf. Who was to say there wasn’t some novelty on her side of the equation too? In any case, it was clear that the two of them were currently very attached to each other whether they liked it or not.

“Or you could just talk to her about it,” Miyeon offered an alternative a few moments later.

Soojin sighed. “I feel like I’m making a big deal out of nothing.”

“You could also ignore it. Maybe the feeling goes away and Shuhua never gets sick of you, after all.”

Soojin scoffed. And then she groaned out, long and loud, then wriggled down on the bed till she was mostly lying instead of sitting now. She fixed the pillows behind her head, then said, “I’m just… Things are really good right now. Too good... There’s no way it can stay like this forever, right?”

She looked nervously over at Miyeon and that’s when it all clicked into place. The reason why Soojin had such low expectations for vampire/werewolf relationships, why she was worried their honeymoon period might be over soon even though there was no real indication of that happening.

This was all Miyeon’s fault.

The older vamp chuckled for a moment once she realized it. “Okay… let me just say this now. Minnie and I are _not_ the model relationship that you think we are.”

Soojin pouted. “I don’t think that you—”

“Just because we fight and break up all the time doesn’t mean that you will too. Some of our problems _are_ vamp and wolf related, but most of it is just… life,” Miyeon said. “Unavoidable messes that we get into like witch hunts or wars or Woodstock. Yes, it’s annoying and I wish we were even half as stable as you and Shuhua are, but that’s just how we work.” She smiled down at her younger vamp friend. “You’re going to have your messes too, but there’s no rule that says you can’t be happy forever.”

Soojin slowly nodded and took her time to ponder Miyeon’s most recent words of advice. Actually, maybe she should stop trying to tell the younger vamp what to do like this. She’d obviously been giving her unrealistic expectations for her relationship. And honestly, Miyeon would feel pretty terrible if she ended up causing Soojin and Shuhua to prematurely breakup. They were their own people, nothing like her and Minnie were. She needed to stop projecting on them so much.

“Speaking of being happy forever…” Miyeon spoke up after some time had passed. Maybe a few minutes, maybe an hour, who knew? “Is there really no love nest or were you just lying to me earlier?”

“Not this again.” Soojin rolled her eyes so hard, Miyeon feared she might permanently injure herself. “Why do you keep calling it that?”

“Fine, then tell me what I should call it instead.”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

“Oh, come on, that makes it sound like…” And then Miyeon’s eyes widened and she suddenly sat up in shock. “No,” she gasped. “Nothing at all? Are you serious?”

Soojin steadfastly avoided her eyes and almost buried herself in the pillows surrounding her. “I wouldn’t say _nothing_ , it’s just… not as much as you think…”

“Oh wow… okay…” That was honestly completely unexpected. But, this might just be another example of Miyeon consciously and subconsciously setting unrealistic expectations for her friend. She and Minnie were certainly very _active_ when they were together (and sometimes when they weren’t together, but that wasn’t the point). And Minnie had told her enough stories about other wolves for Miyeon to have a general idea of what level of bedroom activities to expect. There was also that one wolf Miyeon had briefly dated while she and Minnie had been _off again_ that had given her plenty of firsthand experience.

That was all to say that she’d thought she’d had a good enough sample size to make an educated guess on how _energetic_ wolves could be. Had she been completely wrong?

Or maybe the problem wasn’t Shuhua at all.

“Do you… _want_ there to be more?” Miyeon carefully broached.

“Actually, that’s the reason why I wanted you to come visit,” Soojin said, turning a beseeching gaze towards her. “I need a favour.”

Miyeon nodded. “Sure, of course.” She already knew that she’d do whatever it took to help out her friend. This was the most important thing that—

“I need you to take Minnie far, far away.”

Miyeon blinked, not expecting that response. “… I’m sorry, what?”

“She’s just always here!” Soojin let out in a rush, almost throwing her pillow across the room. Instead, she slammed it down on the bed in bridled frustration. “She’s always in the trailer or she’s running around with Shuhua or she’s hanging out with her in the diner to _help her out with her control_ even when there’s _nobody_ there—it’s frustrating! She just—she never leaves! Ever!”

There was a full beat of silence that followed Soojin’s outburst, where it seemed like the wrath of God might befall anyone who even dared look at her the wrong way.

And then Miyeon burst out laughing. It was full-on, roll around on the bed, belly-aching laughter.

“Don’t laugh,” Soojin half-yelled, half-whined, but then she too couldn’t help but chuckle at just how pitiful she sounded. “It’s not funny.” But she couldn’t even fight the smile on her own face.

“Oh wow,” Miyeon gasped, trying to catch her breath. She wiped at her eyes. “That’s amazing.”

“You try doing _you know what_ with someone who can hear everything right outside,” Soojin huffed. “There’s nothing fun or amazing about it.”

“Oh, I know exactly how you feel.”

Miyeon had had that very same experience a few hours ago. Of course, they’d stopped before it had gotten that far, but that was more luck than anything. Supernatural hearing was both a blessing and a curse. And, in this instance, it had cursed Soojin’s love life into near nonexistence. Poor girl.

“Shuhua practically worships the ground Minnie walks on, so she’d never tell her to leave. And I just don’t know her that well to say something like that. That’s why I need your help.”

But at least now Miyeon knew that she hadn’t been wrong about the, uh… _wolf spirit_.

“You cheeky little liar,” Miyeon teased with a smile. “You were all, ‘oh, I didn’t know you guys broke up but you should just talk her.’ You planned this, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Soojin said without a hint of remorse. “I need her gone, Miyeon.”

“And what if we didn’t make up?”

“Well, that’s your problem.”

Miyeon snorted, amazed at how brazen the other girl was. But, in a sense, it was to be expected. Especially since she’d been _stifled_ for so long. Just thinking about it made her want to burst out giggling like a schoolgirl.

“Fine, I’ll do this for you. But you know I’m never letting you live this down, right?”

Soojin nodded, accepting her fate. “As long as you get the job done.” And then she stuck out her hand. “Deal?”

Miyeon smirked and shook the offered hand. “Deal.”

\--

The next morning, bright and early, as soon as the wolves came back to the motel, Miyeon put her plan into action.

She’d stolen a lawn chair from one of the balcony rooms and had set up shop right in front of Minnie’s trailer. Which meant she was laid out in the sun, dressed in one of the most revealing outfits she’d packed, sparkling like a Christmas tree when Minnie and Shuhua walked into view.

They looked tired and dirty, but happy. Classic full-moon hangover.

Shuhua gave her a simple nod and then kept walking towards Soojin’s room.

But Minnie fully stopped in her tracks when she saw her. And then, like a moth to flame, she walked right towards Miyeon. Hook, line and sinker. She didn’t look quite so tired anymore either.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Miyeon greeted.

“Says you,” Minnie drawled out, raising a teasing eyebrow at her very eye-catching appearance. “Getting into the vacation mood?”

“Something like that.” Miyeon brought a hand up to shield her eyes and then slowly stretched her legs out even though she didn’t need to. She saw Minnie’s eyes follow her movements to a tee. Oh, she had her alright. She held out an inviting hand towards the wolf which she immediately took. And then she pulled her down to sit beside her on the small chair, practically pressed up against her hip. “How was the run?”

“Fun.”

Minnie’s hand was still in her own, but she could tell she was itching to move it elsewhere. So Miyeon moved it for her. She pressed the wolf’s warm palm down on her exposed stomach and felt that rush she always felt when they touched like this. She covered the hand with her own and kept her eyes fixed on Minnie’s. The wolf’s lip was curled up into a playful smile. So maybe she knew exactly what Miyeon was doing.

Whatever, it wasn’t like she was trying to be subtle anyway.

“Remember all those times I used to run with you on full moons?” Miyeon asked.

“We didn’t only run,” Minnie reminded her with a smirk.

“True. And you always had so much energy it was exhausting.”

“Well, maybe if you ran faster, then I wouldn’t have all that energy left for other activities.”

Miyeon scrunched up her face and pitched her voice in a poor imitation of her partner. “ _Well, maybe if you ran faster_ —”

“You’re a terrible actress,” Minnie cut her off with a chuckle. Then she moved the hand on Miyeon’s stomach until it was splayed out over her side. And then she gave her an insistent tug until she’d pulled their bodies even closer together.

Miyeon relaxed and let her body be moved. Not like she had a much of a choice, but still.

“I’d be good,” she muttered with a pout.

“Okay, whatever you say.”

And then Minnie leaned down and captured her lips in the most perfect morning kiss of all. Their lips moved in perfect unison, tugging and teasing the other until they were both smiling too much to continue. Minnie finally pulled away minutes later, her warm hand almost subconsciously rubbing up and down Miyeon’s side.

“You smell,” Miyeon playfully complained.

But Minnie just rolled her eyes in response. It was obvious that her scent hadn’t been an issue at all.

“Go bathe or shower or whatever it is you do in your trailer. I have standards.”

“Okay,” Minnie snorted. But she rose to her feet all the same. Before she fully straightened up however, she leaned down and stole one last kiss. And then she stole a few more because she knew she could get away with it.

“Go,” Miyeon chuckled, slapping her arm.

“Actually, I was thinking of taking a dip in the river a few miles south. Maybe make a little trip of it.”

“Oh?” Miyeon raised an eyebrow as she sat up. A little trip into the woods was exactly what she’d been trying to make happen in her grand ‘Get Soojin Laid’ plan. This was perfect.

“Yeah, don’t tell Soojin but…” And then Minnie leaned down so she could whisper in her ear. “I think Shuhua wants to spend some time with her. Like, alone.”

“Really?” What a remarkable coincidence. “What makes you think that?”

Minnie chuckled and slyly glanced in the direction of Soojin’s motel room. “Well, you know how wolves in the same pack can see each other’s thoughts when they shift?”

“Yeah, you mentioned that.”

“Well… let’s just say that Shuhua had a _very_ one track mind last night. I’d have to blind, deaf and stupid not to get that hint.”

And Miyeon couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled out of her mouth. She tried to stifle it with her hand, but it was no use. Guess it wasn’t just Soojin who’d been frustrated by their lack of _activities_. And of course they’d both decided to tell their friends to get lost in their own ways. Yeah, those two both deserved each other.

“So, as a good mentor, I’m inviting my girlfriend to go skinny-dipping with me in a river far, far, far away from their motel room,” Minnie said as she started walking back to her trailer. She opened the rusty old door and looked back at the vampire. “You want to pack anything from my stuff? Need blood? I have some cooler packs.”

“You keep packs of blood with you?” Miyeon asked in surprise. “For Soojin?”

Minnie shrugged, looking away. “Sure, if she wants some, but it’s just for… you know, just in case anything…”

“Just in case I came back,” Miyeon finished for her with a slow, appreciative smile.

“Speak now or forever hold your peace,” Minnie huffed, swinging her body up and into the trailer without waiting for a response.

Miyeon just laid back down as she waited. “I’m good.”

\--

The river Minnie had been talking about was a good ten miles away from the motel.

It was also practically etched into the side of a cliff, so the chances of a random human or animal stumbling upon them were as good as zero.

Needless to say, they enjoyed their little trip immensely.

And, hours later, when they finally decided to head back to check in—Minnie was still so overprotective of Shuhua that even a few hours away made her antsy—they took the long, scenic route back. Miyeon was carding her fingers through her wet hair over her shoulder, trying to ward off any tangles while she could. Minnie, on the other hand, had shifted into her werewolf form and vigorously shaken out her fur to dry herself. When she’d shifted back, she’d been met with Miyeon’s envious glare.

As a pseudo-apology, Minnie had allowed Miyeon to wear her button-down shirt on the way back. ‘Allowed’ meaning that she couldn’t have stopped her if she’d tried, but at least she didn’t whine about it like she usually did. Which meant that all Minnie had to wear was her ‘love and peace’ crop top she’d been wearing as an undershirt before.

“I can’t believe you turned into a helicopter parent while I was gone,” Miyeon teased her.

Minnie scowled. “I did not.”

“But, you are. You weren’t this worried about Shuhua when we went to Woodstock and we were halfway across the country then. What happened?”

The pink-haired wolf stuffed her hands in her pockets as they continued walking.

“Nothing happened,” she refuted. “But she wasn’t hanging so close to humans back then either, so I guess it was easier.”

“Did she have an accident?” Miyeon warily asked.

“No, she’s been pretty good. Perfect, actually. Much better than I was when I started out.” Minnie kicked a few rocks down the path ahead of them. “I think having Soojin around helps.”

“I’m sure having another werewolf who knows what she’s going through does too.”

Minnie smiled. “Thanks... I know you don’t really get the whole pack thing, but it feels like she’s my family, you know.”

“You really care about her.”

“I do.”

They walked in silence for a long while after that and Miyeon wondered if Minnie’s thoughts were heading in the same direction that hers were. If she was thinking about the circumstances surrounding how Shuhua had joined their little unit.

And it seemed like Minnie _was_ thinking along the same lines, because she said, “Sometimes I think about how different Shuhua’s life would’ve been if I didn’t fuck up back then, you know. That’s why I feel so responsible for her. It’s basically all my fault.”

“Well…” Miyeon pursed her lips as she thought about how to answer. She knew this was a sensitive part of their history. “I know Shuhua loves being in a pack with you. And it’s because of you that she met Soojin, so I don’t think she regrets it at all.”

“Yeah, but…” Minnie glanced up at her briefly, and Miyeon knew what she was going to say even before she said it. “I meant even before that. Back in… Back in Salem.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah…” Minnie ran a hand through her fluffed out pink hair, suddenly looking more tired than she’d ever been. “There’s so much I should’ve done differently, so I guess that’s why… I don’t know… I feel like I still have a lot to make up for.”

“Shuhua doesn’t see it that way.” It was an assumption on Miyeon’s part, but she was fairly confident it was true. She knew the young wolf didn’t hold anything against Minnie for what she did.

“Not just Shuhua… With you, too,” Minnie whispered.

Miyeon took a deep breath. Salem was really the darkest spot in both of their lives by far. So many of the problems that had cropped up over the years since then could be traced back to that time. It followed them like a shadow (and it had followed Miyeon all the way to Europe every time she’d tried to escape their life together). It felt… stifling.

“Why don’t we go back there?” Miyeon suddenly asked. She saw Minnie’s eyes widen in shock and trepidation, but she continued, “We should go back to Salem. Go back and just… get over it, don’t you think?”

Minnie opened and closed her mouth several times before she finally spoke. “Just… get over it?”

“I mean, I know it won’t be that easy, but I’m tired of just ignoring it all the time. It happened, we fucked up, we shouldn’t let it keep bothering us like this.”

Minnie dropped her eyes to the ground and chewed at her lips. Then she let out a forcibly cheery laugh. “What if you get mad and break up with me again?”

“I won’t,” Miyeon firmly promised. And she knew what Minnie was really asking her. Salem was something that had hurt Miyeon far more than it had hurt Minnie at the time. It wasn’t a stretch to say that it was the single most damaging event in their relationship. It had sowed such deep mistrust and insecurity that they still hadn’t fully recovered centuries later. Sure, she could just say they should get over it, but would Miyeon actually be able to do that when it all came down to it?

“I won’t break up with you,” Miyeon promised again, because she couldn’t make any other promise just yet. But she could start small and she could make this first step.

Minnie slowly nodded, then let out a deep breath.

“Okay.” Then she looked up into Miyeon’s eyes and put on the best smile she could. It wasn’t strong or brave or reassuring, but it was honest. And that’s what they needed the most right now. “Okay, let’s go to Salem.”

“With Shuhua and Soojin too. If they want,” Miyeon quickly added on. “It might be good for them too.”

“Sure… Let’s all… Let’s all go on the… best road trip of our lives.” Minnie looked like she was seconds away from breaking down. “Can’t wait.”

And Miyeon couldn’t help but grab her face in her hands and plant the biggest kiss on those nervous and trembling lips. She kissed all over her face too, then finally hugged her head close to her chest.

“I love you,” she whispered fiercely in Minnie’s ear. And then she kissed her again. And then she said it again, looking right in her eyes. “I love you. More than anyone and anything in the world. You.”

Minnie nodded and eventually cracked a watery smile in return. “Love you too.”

\--

About a mile away from the motel, Minnie and Miyeon found a broken down car in the middle of the road.

What made it even more conspicuous was the fact that the old motel clerk was out there too, working under the hood and trying to get it to work. From the curses and mutters they heard from him as they approached, he wasn’t having much luck.

And then they heard him say the words, “… ‘nothing a normal person woulda done, but o’ course she ain’t no normal anything… even scarier than them wolves and bloodsuckers… ‘don’t need her hush money anyway…”

That definitely got their attention.

Miyeon and Minnie shared a glance with each other, still too far away from the clerk for him to spot them.

Minnie spoke up first. “Hush money? Somebody paid him off? To do what?”

“I don’t know, but I think I have a guess.” Miyeon nodded in the direction of the silver car. “That convertible look familiar to you?”

“Maybe…”

They steadily walked closer and Miyeon nodded at Minnie’s unasked question.

The wolf called out to the clerk, “Got a new ride?”

He jumped at the sudden noise, obviously not having heard them approach. Then he tried to make himself presentable when he finally looked at them and saw that Miyeon was there too. What a scumbag.

“’Morning, ma’am. See you’re enjoying a nice walk out. Hopefully you wasn’t too disturbed by all the howling last night. Just some harmless little critters,” he said with a smarmy smile.

“I wasn’t too bothered,” Miyeon sweetly replied. “Is this your car? It looks pretty nice.”

He fluffed up at that even though they both knew it wasn’t his car. “Not mine this time, unfortunately. ‘S one of the guests. Just tryna… help her out.”

The upside of him basically forgetting that Minnie was there with them too was that the wolf got to walk up to the car without notice and give it a quick onceover for anything suspicious. And when the clerk turned his head far enough away, she leaned down and gave the driver’s seat a big whiff. She quickly met Miyeon’s eyes after that and gave her a small nod.

“Well, we’re just going to head back up to the motel. Try not to work too hard, okay?” Miyeon said, not willing to stretch their conversation on any longer than necessary.

“Thank you, ma’am. I really appreciate it,” he responded with a tip of his hat. “You have a good day now.”

They walked at a painstaking human pace until they were far enough away from the clerk. And then Minnie confirmed her suspicions. “It’s that same chick you saw at Woodstock.”

Miyeon pursed her lips. “I knew it.”

“Did you ever run into her again after that? Why do you think she’s here?”

“Well, it’s not for a vacation, I can tell you that.”

They made quick work of the rest of the journey back, arriving at Minnie’s trailer in less than 3 minutes. As Minnie reached up to unlock her door, she stopped when she noticed something on the ground. She pointed down at it and Miyeon followed her finger to see… horse tracks?

“Yuqi’s here,” Minnie said, sounded a bit worried.

“Who’s Yuqi?”

“She’s kind of mine and Shuhua’s friend, but it’s a long story. Thing is, she never usually comes this early. And look,” she pointed at a set of human-looking footprints beside those of the horse. “She never walks her horse—I think someone came with her.”

Miyeon frowned. There were too many things happening right now for it all to be a coincidence.

“I’ll go get Soojin and Shuhua,” she declared. She’d apologize to them later, but play time was officially over.

“Wait,” Minnie called out before she could leave. The wolf took a few experimental sniffs, turning her head this way and that until it seemed like she’d picked up on the scent she was searching for. Her head turned towards a particular building on the lot. “They’re in the diner,” she said.

“Who?”

“All of them,” Minnie answered, her brows furrowed in worry. “Soojin, Shuhua, Yuqi and… the girl from Woodstock.”

They didn’t say anything for a full beat after that, but then Miyeon found herself nodding. She straightened her shoulders and looked right into Minnie’s eyes. “Let’s go, then.”

Minnie nodded along with her, her gaze hardening into a determination that Miyeon hadn’t seen from her in a while. She knew then, without a shadow of a doubt, that the wolf had her back. No matter who or what they were up against.

“Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can't a werewolf and a vampire just have a few hours to themselves to make a nice little love nest in peace?
> 
> Happy almost Halloween ya filthy animals :)
> 
> and as always, drop your thoughts and feeeeeeelings down below


	7. Salem (with a horse named Duck) – 1975

**_Chapter 7 – Salem (with a horse named Duck) – 1975_ **

Soyeon followed Yuqi. All the way across the desert, over a million and one sand dunes, all the way from the smelly horse ranch to the smelly werewolf motel.

It was a long, tiring trip. Which was only made marginally better by the fact that Soyeon had managed to get almost 9 whole hours of sleep the night before. A small grace in this cruel, smelly world.

Yuqi had been huffing and puffing and just downright disapproving of the fact that she’d slept over at her ranch. Which, again, was very understandable. But the horse girl had also done something that Soyeon couldn’t quite comprehend. She’d offered to let Soyeon ride on her horse on the way over to the motel, saying, “It’s no problem for me, I don’t really get tired like normal people. You should ride Duck.”

And by Duck, she’d of course been referring to her very large, very muscled stallion of a _horse_. But Soyeon chose not to point out her obviously failing eyesight.

Instead, she’d offhandedly replied, “I’m not normal people.” And that was the end of that.

But now, Soyeon couldn’t help but wonder if she’d made the wrong choice. They’d walked for something close to an hour from the ranch to the motel. Yuqi had ridden her horse and Soyeon had walked along, uncomplaining, beside her. And now, all the perks of that good night’s sleep were gone because the vampire hunter was _very_ sore.

She discreetly stretched out her back as she waited for Yuqi to tie up her horse to a post behind the motel’s main offices.

“Duck is pretty good at waiting, but I tie him up just to be safe,” the horse girl said once she was done.

And Soyeon couldn’t possibly let that slide twice. “You are aware that that foul beast you’ve befriended is a horse and not a duck, right?”

“Oh, I know that,” the girl replied with a bright smile. “That’s his name.”

“A horse named ‘Duck’?”

“Yeah! Isn’t it cute?”

Soyeon had a dozen words she would’ve used to describe that creature and none of them were even remotely close to ‘cute’. But she didn’t say that. Instead, she turned right around and started walking back to the front of the motel.

Yuqi quickly fell into step beside her. “Anyway, I know you said you weren’t tired, but I was thinking we could chill out at the diner for a bit and maybe grab a bite to eat. My friend Shuhua works there and she’s super nice—”

“Yuqi.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m a vampire hunter,” Soyeon patiently reminded her. “What do those words mean to you?”

“Um…” Yuqi fiddled with her fingers as she took her time to answer. “You’re uh… really into vampires?”

Soyeon scoffed, but nodded. She decided to play along. “Sure. Vampire bones, vampire heads, vampire deaths. I’m really into vampire deaths. Murder, you could call it—”

“Okay, I get the point,” Yuqi cut her off with a grimace.

Soyeon shot a glance at her and was struck by how pitiful Yuqi looked. Or really, how uneasy it made Soyeon feel to see her looking so pitiful. She didn’t like these… feelings. Maybe the hour-long walk through the desert in the blazing heat had fried her brain. She really hoped so.

“I understand that you’re friendly with these creatures. I get that,” Soyeon tried her best to sound understanding. It wasn’t very successful. “But I have a mission. And you’re going to help me complete it.”

“Yeah, but… you know what they say about m-murder on an empty stomach…” Well. Yuqi was trying, Soyeon had to give her that.

But the vampire hunter was also achy and sore and tired of playing games. So she fixed Yuqi with a hard glare, erasing all traces of amusement from her features so she could really drive home her point. Play time was over.

“Which room?” She chillingly asked.

They were standing in front of the main offices now and the clerk was nowhere to be seen. Which was good news for Soyeon, really. She only had so much hush money to go around and she’d already used all of it. She hoped it would be enough, but she’d been wrong before.

Yuqi nervously adjusted her cowboy hat and shiftily glanced around the lot. Soyeon saw her eyes briefly pass over the silver trailer before they returned to staring into some far-off direction.

“Well, there are a lot of rooms, so I’m not sure which one you’re looking for,” Yuqi said in a voice that was a bit too loud for normal conversation.

Ah… so that was her goal, huh? Get them out into open space so she could hopefully alert all her friends at once if they were listening in? A simple plan, but it could work.

Well, it could’ve worked if Soyeon didn’t know one _very_ important fact about her targets. She’d been at this long enough to know that the best way to beat thine enemy was to know thine enemy. And her current primary target, one Cho Miyeon, was in a committed long-term relationship with a pink-haired werewolf named Kim Minnie. A werewolf who had just experienced the full effects of a full-moon last night. And who would still be helplessly caught up in the throes of passion that usually followed. The simple fact of the matter was that Minnie would be incapacitated for the next few hours, _at least_. And Miyeon would be trapped in the haze right alongside her—like defenseless lambs waiting for slaughter.

Yuqi would be lucky if Miyeon and Minnie could hear a bomb exploding right outside their door at this point. Well, the girl had tried.

Soyeon smirked and turned to face the silver trailer in the parking lot. “So that metal death trap is Minnie’s, right? Bet Miyeon didn’t like that.”

Yuqi spluttered in surprise—probably shocked that Soyeon knew so much. “Y-you… well, I mean, I’ve never met Miyeon so I’m not sure what she likes—not that she’s here or anything! I mean—who’s to say with relationships nowadays… Actually, I hear they’re not doing well, Minnie and Miyeon—I think they broke up. Yeah, that’s probably right. Miyeon hates her.”

And Soyeon could only chuckle at the jumble of words falling out of Yuqi’s mouth. She wondered if the horse girl had even realized she’d basically confirmed information that Soyeon could’ve just been guessing at. This really was too easy.

So Soyeon decided to play with her for a bit.

Yes, she’d already said that play time was over, but that was before she’d seen just how entertaining Yuqi could be when flustered.

“Ah… so that’s why they’re not in the trailer right now? They probably can’t stand to be so close together.”

“Yes. Yes, that’s absolutely right, um…” Yuqi’s eyes nervously glanced at the trailer and then her hand subconsciously came up to wipe away the sweat on her brow. “How… How do you know it’s empty, by the way?” She was probably starting to realize that maybe she didn’t have her _‘friends in high places’_ around to rescue her after all.

“Well, I mean, look at the thing,” Soyeon simply said, her face full of innocence. “Rickety old rust-bucket like that? With a post full-moon wolf and her vampire girlfriend?” She cocked her head to the side in faux contemplation. “I’m surprised it’s still standing, honestly. But, since you said they broke up, I guess it makes sense. There’s no way they’re in there.”

And Soyeon saw the moment the words registered in Yuqi’s head. Her eyes widened like saucers, her mouth turned into an almost perfect ‘O’ and her face turned a very violent shade of red. “O-oh… Yes. Yes, I see.”

And it really did seem like Yuqi was suddenly seeing her vamp and wolf friends in an entire new light. Soyeon almost giggled with glee. This almost felt like that time she’d told a kid that Santa wasn’t real, but ten times better.

“And it’s awfully quiet right now, too,” Soyeon continued, drunk on power. “You probably know what I’m talking about, right? The sounds I was expecting to hear…” She shook her head as she waited patiently for Yuqi to take the bait.

And take the bait, the horse girl did.

“What kind of sounds—?”

“BANG! BANG! BANG!” Soyeon suddenly yelled out, startling Yuqi so much she clutched at her heart in shock. “Like thunder and lightning, almost, but over and over and over and over—”

“Right! Well, they’re definitely not in there, then! Glad we sorted that out!” Yuqi loudly spoke over her, looking like she wanted to be anywhere but there. Soyeon smiled—something very close to a real smile—at the wonderfully distressed look on the girl’s face. It was almost… cute in a way.

“Miyeon’s not in the trailer, so she’s probably still in her room, right?” Which was very obviously not the case. If Miyeon was at the hotel, then she’d definitely be with Minnie. And the chances of them being in a tiny motel room instead of a spacious camper were close to none. Both Soyeon and Yuqi knew that. So if they weren’t in the trailer, they weren’t here at all. Which meant that Yuqi shouldn’t be worried about showing her Miyeon’s empty room. Soyeon tilted her head as she carefully observed the other girl. “I don’t feel like knocking on every door, but I will. Or you can just tell me now.” If Yuqi were smart, she’d play along since it would be a win-win for them both. Soyeon would get the intel she wanted and Yuqi would get to keep her friends alive for a little while longer. 

Yuqi took a deep breath and gathered herself enough to declare, “I won’t let you hurt my friends. Nothing you can say will make me tell you—”

“Crap. You have no idea, do you?” Soyeon cut her off with a disappointed sigh. Of course. If Yuqi was to be believed—which was a very big assumption—she didn’t really know Miyeon that well at all. When Soyeon had seen them near Woodstock, Yuqi had only been talking to the werewolf. So maybe she didn’t have quite as much information as Soyeon had hoped. Minnie and Miyeon weren’t anywhere near the motel, that was for sure, so she was at least hoping she could snoop through the vamp’s belongings while she was out. Going door-to-door wouldn’t get Soyeon anywhere except on the bad side of everyone at the motel. And no amount of hush money would be able to help her then. Still, there had to be something. “What _do_ you know, Miss Yuqi?” There was no way Soyeon had walked a whole hour in the desert for nothing.

“Hey! I know enough! More than you, anyways!” The horse girl huffed, hands folding indignantly across her chest. “Maybe if you weren’t so mean, I’d tell you!”

Soyeon rolled her eyes. “So what do you want me to do, say please?”

“I want you to promise you won’t hurt my friends. Say it right now—swear it.”

Soyeon cocked an eyebrow at the request. Was she being serious? She wanted her to… pinkie-swear that she wouldn’t murder a vampire? Did she really think that that would work? For a moment Soyeon had to really wonder what kind of world Yuqi had grown up in. What kind of childhood could produce the kind of mindset that this girl had? It was obvious that she didn’t think the vampire hunter was as scary as advertised. Or maybe she was just so used to having family and friends with such strong supernatural leanings that she thought humans were no threat at all.

And that thought didn’t sit right with Soyeon. If there was one thing she hated, it was when people underestimated her. She was scary. She was very scary.

Soyeon bared her teeth in something that could only be called a snarl. “Listen here, if you don’t tell me something actually useful in the next ten seconds—”

_*THUMP*_

Soyeon cut herself off when she heard what sounded like something very big hitting the ground. She quickly glanced around where they were standing out in the open in front of the motel, but nothing stood out to her. But Yuqi had definitely heard it too. The girl’s cheeks were still puffed out in irritation, but her eyes were also covertly checking her surroundings. She was trying not to make it too obvious though.

Their eyes met in a tense standoff and Soyeon narrowed her own when Yuqi stayed quiet. Given her previous talkative tendencies, the sudden silence was… suspicious to say the least.

“You heard that,” Soyeon finally said. It wasn’t a question.

Yuqi shrugged, fiddling with her belt buckle. “Heard what?”

Soyeon scoffed. “Don’t play coy with me—”

_*THUMP* *THUMP*_

It was louder that time, and by the second time, Soyeon’s keen ears had found the direction it was coming from. The motel.

She took a step towards the buildings on the left, where she could still see a few chairs vibrating in place on the balconies. Her eyes caught sight of a particular room on the lower level marked with the number _104_ —

“I think Duck broke something around the back,” Yuqi suddenly said, her voice a bit too high-pitched. “He gets excited sometimes when he’s hungry—or thirsty. He’s probably thirsty, so I should take him to the river so he can cool drown. And drink. You should come.”

Soyeon watched as the girl purposefully grabbed her hand and tried to steer her back to the horse posts. But Soyeon held firm. She cocked her head at Yuqi with a wicked smile on her face. There was so much that the girl had given away with that little speech. “I thought you said your horse was good at waiting?”

“Y-yeah, but hungry horses, you know—”

“So why not just go to the diner? That’s where you were trying to take me before, right? I assume they have water.”

“Uh…” Yuqi was sweating hard now. “Yeah, I didn’t tell you, but Duck’s a special horse, he can only drink natural, running water. The diner uses that processed bottled stuff—honestly, it’s bad for humans too, so I wouldn’t drink it if I were—”

“And now that you mention it…” Soyeon pulled her hand away, letting it rest on her hip in a way that forced her jacket partially open. So the holster of her knife could be seen. “You did say something about your friend working here, didn’t you? What was her name again?” Soyeon knew she was on the right track because Yuqi’s eyes widened as soon as she mentioned her friend. What were the chances that Yuqi had more _‘friends in high places’_ than just Minnie and Miyeon? From the nervous look in her eyes and the highly suspicious sounds coming from the motel, that might be the case. “Ah, yes… Shuhua, wasn’t it?”

_*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*_

And the smile that erupted on Soyeon’s face at those series of earth-rattling crashes was the closest thing to real since last night. Because that… she was no meteorologist, but that definitely sounded like… “Thunder and lightning, baby,” she sang out. She looked up at the bright, sunny sky and positively beamed. What good fortune. “And not a single cloud in sight—”

Suddenly, Soyeon felt a heavy weight press against her back and a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist. Her brow raised in surprise and she looked behind her to see Yuqi’s scared, yet determined face staring right back at her. The girl was back-hugging her. Or, really, it was more of a trap instead of a hug.

They stared at each other for a long moment before Soyeon finally dared to break the silence.

“What are you doing?” She asked in a dangerously low tone.

“… It’s a hug.”

“Yuqi—”

“I won’t let you hurt my friends,” the cowboy hat girl insisted, tightening her hold. And if Soyeon had been curious about how Yuqi’s mixed supernatural blood manifested, she got her answer. The girl was strong. Not to the extent of a vampire or werewolf, but definitely exceeding the level of a regular human like Soyeon. The vampire hunter was sure that she wouldn’t be able to break the hold even if she tried.

But that didn’t scare her. If anything, it excited her. She hadn’t survived as long as she had in her profession by being stronger. No, she was smarter.

“So if I promise that I won’t hurt them, you’ll let me go?”

Yuqi bit her lip. “I don’t know if I can trust you.”

Soyeon smirked. “You’re right, you shouldn’t… Do you want my knife?” And it was obvious that the girl was considering her words, but she didn’t want to show it. So Soyeon decided to make it easy for her. “Go on, take it. I won’t stop you.”

Yuqi didn’t move for a moment—during which they heard at least two more loud crashes from the motel. But then, she decided to take the vampire hunter up on her offer. One hand loosened from around Soyeon’s waist and ventured carefully to her hip.

Soyeon tried not to think about the fact that Yuqi was touching a lot more than she needed to because they refused to look away from each other’s eyes. She just didn’t think about it. Instead, she simply nodded when Yuqi unclipped the harness and took her knife.

“See, I’m not so dangerous anymore, am I?”

It was Yuqi’s turn to scoff. She pocketed the knife and quickly returned her hand to Soyeon’s waist. The hold wasn’t quite as tight anymore, but Soyeon still didn’t dare to move. She kept her gaze firmly locked with Yuqi’s, enjoying the challenge she could see in her eyes.

“You’re a vampire hunter,” Yuqi finally said.

“And yet still just a tiny, frail little human.” She contorted her face into some attempt at innocence, but she knew that acting was never her strongest suit. Yuqi wasn’t fooled. “Look how easily you subdued me, Miss Yuqi. What hope do I have against a real vampire, huh? If anything, I’ll probably need you there to protect me.”

“You’re planning something. I don’t know what, but I’m not going to let it happen.”

Soyeon sighed, finally starting to feel some annoyance seep in. “So, what? Are you going to hug me until your friends stop fucking?”

Yuqi blushed at her crass language, but she still didn’t waver. If anything, she grew more determined. “Actually… yes.”

\--

As it turned out, they were in for a very long wait.

Almost two hours later and Soyeon was starting to feel the ache in her already very sore body. Yuqi had kept her word. She’d kept hugging her the entire time they’d spent sitting on a bench behind the motel, listlessly staring out at the dirt roads and sparse forestry, accompanied by an equally bored horse named Duck.

And the thunderous crashes never stopped. Though they too had slowly started to fade into background noise as the time went on.

Soyeon scowled. This was _not_ how she’d planned for this to go at all. She was only somewhat comforted by the fact that Yuqi seemed just as put out as she was at the turn of events.

“Your friends are very energetic, huh?” Soyeon growled out in annoyance.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”  
The vampire hunter sighed. “Listen—”

A particularly loud growl ripped through the air and Soyeon could feel Yuqi cringing in embarrassment behind her. This was just… painful.

“Listen,” she started again, but much stronger this time. “Can I be honest with you?”

“That’s a stupid question, but okay.”

“This isn’t how I want to spend my morning. And I doubt this is what you want either.”

Yuqi huffed. “Yeah, but you want to kill my friends, so—”

“Actually, I think there might be a slight misunderstanding here. If I’m being honest… I just want to kill _one_ of your friends.”

“Wow, okay—that’s _so_ much better,” Yuqi scoffed and Soyeon could just imagine the girl rolling her eyes behind her. “Yeah, of course, no problem.”

“What I’m trying to say is that you’re overreacting. I’m only after Miyeon and Minnie and since I know that they aren’t here right now, I’m practically harmless. I don’t know who your other friends are, but I’d be stupid to try and mess with them while they’re so… _you know_.”

Yuqi pressed her forehead into Soyeon’s back, at the spot right in between her shoulder blades. Soyeon could tell that the other girl was getting pretty tired too.

“Why do you hate Miyeon so bad?”

“I don’t hate her at all. It’s just business.”

“Business?” Yuqi’s head lifted and Soyeon could feel the breaths against her ear as the girl spoke. “Someone paid you to kill her? Why? What did she ever do to deserve this?”

Soyeon pursed her lips. She didn’t know why, but hearing the raw emotion in the other girl’s voice was starting to make her feel… what? Sad? Maybe not that far, but she definitely felt _something_. And she hated it. “Don’t think about it too much, Yuqi. It doesn’t concern you.”

“Of course it does. I may not know her all that well, but she’s a good person—or good vampire, whatever. The point is that she’s not as bad as you think she is. She and Soojin don’t even drink human blood.”

Soyeon’s brow quirked up. “Soojin. Who’s that?”

“Damn it…” Yuqi turned her head away and quietly swore behind her, but Soyeon still heard her. Another slip of the tongue, huh? Yuqi really wasn’t cut out for this whole keeping secrets business. “Soojin is Shuhua’s partner,” the horse girl finally revealed with a sigh. “She’s the other half of the… thunder we’re hearing right now.”

And almost on cue, a loud series of crashes rippled through the air. Soyeon had to wonder what the other motel guests thought about the ridiculous noises they were hearing. Did they just think a freak thunderstorm had suddenly popped up out of nowhere the past couple of hours? Without any rain or clouds to boot? Or maybe they’d developed a sort of don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy out of necessary survival.

And that was something that Soyeon hated—how weak these creatures could make a normal human feel. She hadn’t felt that weakness in a long while though and for that she was grateful.

“Soojin and Shuhua. They’re vampires?”

Yuqi tightened her arms reflexively around Soyeon’s waist and the vampire hunter just sighed. “There’s literally nowhere I can go right now. Relax.”

“I still don’t trust you.”

“Fine, whatever. How about I make you a deal? You tell me about—”

Yuqi scoffed. “The last deal we made had you squatting in my ranch overnight _without_ my permission. That’s not a real deal, that’s just you forcing people to do what you want.” Soyeon rolled her eyes so that the girl couldn’t see, but allowed her to keep talking. “If you want people to trust you, you have to give them something in return.”

And Soyeon very nearly scoffed at that. She didn’t want people to trust her, she wanted them to fear her. That was what got her the fastest results anyways. But then she took a moment to properly consider the situation she was in right now. She was overpowered by an overly loyal kind-of-human and she was running out of time to get intel on her targets. Who knew how long it would be before Miyeon and Minnie returned from whatever hole they’d crawled into to blow off some steam? As unexpectedly comfortable as Soyeon’s current prison was, she needed to get free. And soon.

Soyeon looked around for inspiration, finding nothing except barren land and a smelly old horse. She didn’t even have her knife either, which she was trying not to regret. She’d hoped that by showing Yuqi how powerless she was, that the girl would drop her guard. That hadn’t worked. And then Soyeon’s eyes zeroed in on Yuqi’s animal companion who was cluelessly pacing around beside them. And, like it was fated to happen, the horse named Duck looked up at Soyeon in response, their eyes locking in an impending challenge.

Okay. Yuqi wanted her to give something in return? Okay. She could do that.

Soyeon took a deep breath and forced herself to say the words, “You know, I’ve never ridden a horse before.”

Two things happened at once. The first was that Yuqi sat up in surprise behind her, her arms tightening around Soyeon’s waist with far more affection than she’d used before.

The second was that that stupid horse made a weird sort of half-snort, half-sneeze sound and then shook its head with what almost looked like a smile on its face. Did the horse just… laugh at her?

“Wait, are you serious?” Yuqi practically yelled. In part because she was excited, but also because there was a high-pitched howl that came from the motel room at the exact same time. They chose to ignore what that particular sound might mean, for both of their sakes. Plus, the ‘thunder’ kept going, so better not to think about it at all. “Never? Is that why you were scared to ride when I offered earlier?”

Soyeon scowled. “I wasn’t scared… But yes, never. In my field, I need fast—cars, bikes, planes, stuff like that. Horses don’t cut it.”

“Not fast?” Yuqi laughed in response, which honestly left Soyeon puzzled. “If my great-grandma could hear you know, she’d smack you in the mouth for saying something so ugly.” And considering the fact that Yuqi had said her great-grandmother was part werewolf, Soyeon was glad she wasn’t around to hear her. “Not fast—do you hear that, Duck? She thinks you’re _not fast_. Ha!” Soyeon’s scowl only deepened further as Yuqi kept laughing at her. What was so funny anyway? The horse girl poked Soyeon in the side as she continued, “No wonder you came to my house all scary-looking like that. Do you even know what Song Ranch does?”

“You keep those smelly beasts you like to ride around on. Just like any other ran—hey! What are you doing?”

Mid-sentence, that particularly smelly beast named Duck had walked right up to them, until his muzzle was mere inches from Soyeon’s face. She turned her head away and tried to dodge his advances, but Yuqi’s arms held her immobile. She had no choice but to let Duck sniff at her head, his breaths blowing out all over her face. Soyeon had to bite down a very angry string of curses.

“Duck’s just trying to get to know you better,” Yuqi explained.

And then, because Duck was a more formidable enemy than the vampire hunter had given him credit for, he gave her a slobbery lick right up the side of her head.

“Oh my god…” Soyeon nearly gagged.

“See, he likes you,” Yuqi tittered. “And for your information, Song Ranch breeds racehorses—or we used to anyway. None of our horses have ever lost a single race. Ever,” she proudly boasted. “Duck here is one of the last of the Song racehorses, undefeated for the last fifty years.”

The smelly animal in front of her looked as smug as Yuqi sounded behind her. And then the finer details of what the girl had disclosed registered in Soyeon’s head. Fifty years? Didn’t horses usually live only half that time? Just what was in the water up at that ranch?

Soyeon stared up at the horse with growing apprehension. “This horse isn’t normal.”

“Duck’s a bit like me, I think. We’re different, but that’s okay,” Yuqi said.

A moment of silence passed between them. During which, Soyeon was embarrassed to say that she didn’t even think about the sudden lack of noise coming from the motel. All of her attention was held by a curious horse named Duck and an even curiouser horse-owner named Yuqi.

“I can teach you how to ride him, if you want…” Yuqi offered after a while.

That was what Soyeon had hoped would happen when she first brought up the subject. A chance to escape her confinement and get a change of scenery. But now that the offer was here… She wasn’t scared, she was just…

“You won’t let me get hurt, will you?” Soyeon found herself quietly asking.

“Of course not,” Yuqi vowed. “I promise.”

\--

Whatever promises Yuqi had made to protect Soyeon, it was obvious that Duck had very different ideas. The second Soyeon had mounted the animal, it was like a switch had flipped in its head.

Where before Duck had been reserved and lazy-looking, now he moved with a sharpness and speed that was absolutely meant to throw Soyeon off her seat. But she held on tight—her life depended on it, after all.

“Whoa Duck, slow down a bit,” Yuqi called out, chuckling nervously as Duck started up into another trot. The horse girl was walking along beside them—jogging now—and she held the reins in a vice-like grip. She was _supposed_ to be leading them, but that wasn’t the case. If it wasn’t for whatever supernatural blood she had in her, chances were Yuqi would’ve been left in the dust a long time ago. But still, she kept up. And Soyeon appreciated that fact more than she would ever say.

Because Soyeon wasn’t scared, but she was… a bit… unnerved.

“I don’t think your horse likes me,” Soyeon said through her teeth, She didn’t want to open her mouth too far for fear of accidentally biting her tongue off.

“Nonsense,” Yuqi huffed, almost full-on running now. “Duck likes… everyone… he’s just—come on, Duck—slow, slow—”

Then the worst thing that could possibly happen did.

Yuqi tripped.

And the reins slipped free of her hand for just one crucial second.

And it was like a fire lit up under Duck’s ass—like he’d finally gotten a chance to show off his racehorse pedigree—because he took off like a supercharged bullet.

“Shit!” Was the only thing that Soyeon had time to say before it was too late. In less than a second, Duck was three paces in front of Yuqi, then ten, then twenty. Soyeon glanced back and saw Yuqi running like crazy as she tried to catch up—faster than any normal horse she’d ever seen. But Duck wasn’t a normal horse.

Soyeon braced her body and then devoted the entirety of the rest of her energy to holding on to Duck’s mane, keeping her knees locked tight to the saddle.

“Duck! Stop!” Yuqi yelled. “The forest—”

Soyeon knew what the girl was scared of. They were on flat terrain now which was hard on Soyeon’s knees, but she had a good grip. She could hold on through sheer determination if needs be. But if this devil horse decided to take her through the bumpy, uneven landscape of the forest… it would be game over for sure. Her plan B was to try and jump off and not die. It wasn’t the best plan she’d ever had, but it was starting to look like the only viable one.

Soyeon took a deep, anxious breath as they neared the tree line and then—

Duck swerved hard to the left, cutting an angle so sharp that Soyeon almost got whiplash. But she held on. And she cursed the horse a thousand times over in her head. So he didn’t want to kill her, huh? What was this then? Was he just… toying with her? Threatening her?

“I’ve killed… bigger and… deadlier creatures than you,” Soyeon hissed out close to Duck’s heaving head. She hoped he heard her, she hoped he knew his days were numbered. “You don’t scare me… _you fucking Duck!_ ”

The horse suddenly stopped short in its tracks, rearing up on its hind legs for a long moment before finally settling down. Soyeon barely registered the change in movement—her body was so tensed that it all felt like one continuous wave of terror.

But she heard the growl.

And when she finally managed to force her eyes back open, Soyeon saw the large, angry werewolf who was standing right in front of them.

Perfect. Just what Soyeon needed, more supernatural creatures.

She allowed herself a brief moment to catch her breath and then her brain started assessing the situation. The werewolf had long black hair, not pink—so either Minnie had dyed her hair recently or this was an entirely different beast. And this wolf looked wilder somehow, more… unpredictable. Its front paws batted at the ground in an obvious challenge, but Soyeon didn’t know if it was meant for Duck or her or the both of them. It probably didn’t matter really—her wellbeing was entirely dependent on what Duck chose to do next. And for now, the horse was just… waiting.

The werewolf let out another growl, deeper and more menacing this time. And something in Soyeon’s mind told her to brace herself and she was glad she did.

Because suddenly, the wolf feinted left and Duck jerked right in response. But the wolf was expecting that, so it switched directions and lunged at the horse’s flank—

And it was only through some grace of God that Duck managed to dodge it in time. But the horse had been sufficiently scared. Duck took off running again, but this time it was back towards the motel.

Good. Soyeon felt some small thread of hope running through her. But she wasn’t home free yet. The wolf was running after them, hot on their heels, snapping and snarling from a distance that was too close for comfort.

Soyeon could barely open her eyes due to the wind, but she could just make out the edges of the building up ahead of them. Well… it was good they were heading back, but how on Earth was she supposed to get off? Wouldn’t Duck just take off in another direction once he realized he’d run out of space? Would the wolf keep corralling them indefinitely or did it have some kind of endgame? If Soyeon had to fight off a werewolf, she couldn’t do it on an out-of-control horse. She needed to level the playing field a bit or she wouldn’t stand a chance.

So plan B it was then. There was no two ways about it—she had to get off.

She spared a brief thought to wonder what had happened to Yuqi. Was the girl still chasing after her now? She wondered what the horse girl would think when she saw Soyeon’s small body jumping off the runaway beast? Would she be surprised? Probably.

Soyeon imagined herself smirking at the girl once it was all over, telling her never to underestimate her. And then she imagined the more likely scenario—Yuqi finding her broken and bloody corpse lying on the ground.

Well. At least Soyeon could confidently say she wasn’t scared anymore. She wasn’t scared of vampires or werewolves or humans or death. Not if she had a plan. She was prepared now—whatever the outcome may be. She was ready.

Soyeon squinted her eyes open and saw the motel a short distance away. She had to time this right. She took a long, deep breath… then she tensed her body in preparation.

“I really wish I could’ve killed you Duck…” She made sure to leave the devil beast with a sweet farewell.

And she didn’t know if the horse could understand what she said, but his head perked up in seeming curiosity… and it almost felt like he started to slow down…

But that’s all the opportunity that Soyeon needed. She loosened her grip and pushed off hard—

Her body flew off the horse with so much speed that it felt like she was airborne forever—

And then she relaxed every single muscle in her body in anticipation of the final crash…

The softest pillow. That’s what the afterlife felt like to Soyeon. Was this… heaven? And given that she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had a one-way ticket to hell, she knew there was no way she was dead. Hell couldn’t be this… soft.. could it?

“Are you alright?” A voice like milk honey quietly asked her as she slowly regained consciousness.

Soyeon looked up and saw pale skin sparkling in the sunlight and a concerned face staring down at her. It took a while, but her brain slowly started back up too. And the situation she was in became clear. She’d jumped off the horse named Duck, but instead of falling to a most gruesome death, she’d been caught. She’d been caught by a vampire.

A vampire who now was carefully holding her like she was on Death’s door. That was probably what she looked like too.

“You’re… vampire…” Soyeon croaked out, her body starting to shiver. She knew what this was. She was in shock.

“Yes,” her savior said. And then she wrapped Soyeon in what looked like a faded green t-shirt. “My name’s Soojin. I’m Yuqi’s friend. What’s your name?”

Soyeon considered saying a million things. But her brain could only process so much right now. “Jeon Soyeon… vampire hunter…”

“Mhmm,” Soojin hummed, but she wasn’t even looking at her now. Instead she was reaching out to something beside her. Soyeon turned her head just enough to see that Soojin was petting the black wolf, tenderly stroking its fur like it was anything other than an animal. And then Soojin spoke to the creature, “Go help Yuqi with Duck, okay? I’ll take her to the diner so she can get some food.”

The werewolf growled low and rubbed its nose along the side of Soojin’s face.

Soojin just smiled. “I’ll be fine, I promise. Plus, you’ll come quick, right?” The wolf vigorously nodded its shaggy head. Then, with a last glance at Soyeon, the wolf ran off… somewhere. Soyeon could barely focus anymore, so she closed her eyes.

“I’ll get you some food, okay? You’ll be fine.”

And then Soyeon’s body finally just gave out.

\--

Soyeon woke up some time later, but she kept her eyes closed as she tried to figure out where she was. There were a lot of voices around her. Some loud, some soft.

The one right beside her was soft and slightly familiar. Soojin.

And then Yuqi—that one was easy to recognize. She was naturally loud, but currently trying not to be.

And then there was another voice that sounded like it was talking to Yuqi. Loud, but a bit rough and… excited?

The rest of the voices were too far and indistinct to make out. But there were enough for Soyeon to realize that she must be in a fairly busy place right now.

“Stop arguing, she’s awake,” Soojin suddenly said. And Yuqi and the other voice immediately fell silent.

Soyeon smiled. Looks like it was time for her to ‘wake up’. She carefully opened her eyes and the very first thing she saw was Yuqi’s concerned face staring back at her. They were all in a diner, it looked like. And there were four of them in a booth right now. Soojin and Soyeon on one side, with Yuqi and another girl across from them. Context clues would suggest that this other girl was probably Shuhua—and Soyeon had a feeling that she was the black werewolf that she’d seen before.

“How are you feeling?” Yuqi hesitantly asked.

“Like death,” Soyeon drawled out in response. She cleared her dry throat and Soojin immediately pushed a glass of water towards her. “Thank you… Soojin, was it?”

“Right. And you’re Soyeon… vampire hunter.”

Soyeon noticed how Yuqi and Shuhua tensed up across from them, but Soojin barely flinched. “… That’s right.” Soyeon sipped at her water and tried to figure out what the best course of action would be. Her brain was still a bit fatigued from her brush with death, so not much came to mind. Also, she _still_ didn’t have her knife back. That was the real tragedy here. Well… when in doubt, talk yourself out. “I assume you might have a few questions for me, then. I know I have some for you too.”

“I do, but let’s wait a bit first.”

“Hmm?” Soyeon raised her brow at the calm girl beside her. Soojin didn’t respond, but the answer became clear a few seconds later.

The doors to the diner burst open and all the other customers seemed to fall silent as two figures stepped in.

Soyeon couldn’t help but smile at her fortune today. A real smile, devoid from any treachery or trickery. Either she’d been cursed or blessed, she didn’t know which one yet. The two figures slowly walked up to their full booth and stared down at her with no small amount of hostility.

Soyeon nodded to herself. Well, she definitely didn’t have a plan for this one. She finished her glass of water and then turned to greet the newcomers.

“Miyeon. Minnie. Fancy seeing the two of you again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sooshu finally got their boom boom time, yay!  
> and soyeon vs duck is the real fight here, she only lost cuz she didn't have her knife lol
> 
> we're in the salem arc now, fam! drop ur thoughts and feelings :)
> 
> p.s. if you ever hear thunder without any rain... now you know why


	8. The Moon Landing (with the coven before liftoff), part 1 – 1969

**_Chapter 8 – The Moon Landing (with the coven before liftoff), part 1 – 1969_ **

“ _Clear skies and promises of good weather this weekend. Perfect for getting outside… running around a bit with the family… grab a bite to eat—whatever you fancy, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it._ ”

Miyeon bit her lip and stiffly turned her head to stare out the window beside her. The wing of the airplane pierced right through the few clouds they passed, trailing wisps of chilled air in its wake. The window was thick and foggy, but her sensitive eyes could see every drop of water that clung to the metal of the mechanical wing.

The pilot continued his arrival address over the PA system as the flight attendants walked down the aisle for their final check. “ _Now, I’m not much of a tour guide_ ,” he jovially intoned, “ _but my copilot Steve here tells me that there are a couple o’ things I simply **have** to point out._”

Some of the passengers chuckled at his playful exaggeration, but Miyeon just stayed quiet.

She hated airplanes, absolutely hated them.

They were the worst things humans had ever invented in the history of mankind. And that included that wacky new air conditioning system thing that was catching on these days. Or maybe they were just two sides of the same vampire torture coin. Trapping a hundred hot-blooded humans in a tin can for several hours with the same stale air blowing into their faces was… just horrific. The stuff of nightmares, really.

It was a wonder that there hadn’t been any news of vamps losing control on flights yet. Miyeon was dead positive that it had already happened too—some of those ‘missing’ transatlantic flights probably had quite the story to tell if they were ever found.

Miyeon swallowed against her sandpaper throat. She wasn’t some bloodthirsty newborn, but even she had had to take extra precautions this time. She hadn’t breathed or opened her mouth once since she’d boarded at Heathrow. And now, as the plane began its descent into a new country and new continent, she contemplated the pros and cons of never breathing ever again. It certainly would be easier than the pain of temptation that would surely follow the second she landed in the sweltering heat of… Florida.

Good god, she really was going to Florida, wasn’t she?

Soojin was going to owe her an arm and two legs for this.

“Ma’am, do you have any trash with you?” A perfect smile with perfect teeth suddenly asked her.

Miyeon’s eyes slid over to look at the flight attendant standing in the aisle. She wasn’t trying to glare, but the young girl’s flustered reaction said otherwise. Miyeon turned away the second she heard the girl’s heartbeat speed up.

No.

She wasn’t going to have an accident on the plane this close to touchdown. She was better than that.

All the same, she folded her arms in her lap and gripped tightly at her elbows in a bid to chain herself down in her seat.

The middle-aged woman sitting next to her hummed in understanding as the flight attendant quickly fled their section. “Scared of the landing, are you?” She asked Miyeon. The vampire couldn’t afford the air needed to answer, so she simply nodded her head in response. “Oh, you poor thing… Not to worry now, those pilots up there are fully capable young men,” the woman went on, trying to reassure her. “Best of the best, I tell you. You can trust ‘em with your life—more than that even. Flew in the war, they did,” she finished with a whisper that was far too loud to be discreet.

Miyeon nodded again, neglecting to mention the fact that war accomplishments did not comfort her at all. In fact, they did the exact opposite. She’d hated the war and everything it stood for and everything it had made the people she cared about do.

“ _Now… coming up on your left down there,_ ” their pilot continued, “ _is a very special place. Of course you can’t see much now—just some trees and an empty lot… But very soon that’ll be the most important place, not just in our great state or even in our great United States, but in the entire world…_ ”

Nearly every passenger was craning their neck to try and see through the windows on the left side of the plane. Curiosity got the better of Miyeon and so she too decided to take a look. As advertised, she could see absolutely nothing but a pile of trees. Riveting.

But that didn’t stop all the oohs and ahhs from coming out of the easily-impressed humans. After all, almost everyone on this flight was coming to Florida for the same reason, Miyeon included.

“ _And that place… is Disney World_ ,” the pilot deadpanned. Chances were he couldn’t hear the disappointed and disgruntled chatter that followed his little joke, but he definitely knew what the reaction would be. “ _My copilot Steve here says I’m not very funny,_ ” he chuckled. “ _I think he was expecting something else_.”

Miyeon rolled her eyes. But the middle-aged woman beside her was actually chuckling along with the pilot, obviously enjoying his terrible jokes.

“ _Alright, let me try this again then,_ ” the pilot said after a few minutes had passed and the flight attendants had all strapped in for the landing. “ _Though we will not be passing over Kennedy Space Center today, tower control has given us the okay to do a quick flyby…_ ” Murmurs of excitement filled the cabin space and not even Miyeon was immune to its effects. “ _To your right **and** left, whichever window you are closest to… out by that peninsula way out there you should see that building that’s been plastered all over your newspapers all year..._”

Miyeon felt nervous anticipation fill her system as she waited for the plane to complete its wide arc. And then…

There it was.

She finally laid eyes on the thing that had caused her self-imposed exile in Europe to finally come to an end.

The pilot took their plane through several careful maneuvers that gave everyone onboard a chance to properly see the famed building. There was no rocket set up yet, but it still inspired a sense of awe.

“ _Beautiful, isn’t it?_ ” The pilot breathed into the comms. “ _In just a few days three extraordinary pilots will embark on the greatest journey in the history of mankind…_ ” Miyeon glanced around the cabin and noticed that not a single person was talking. They were all stunned silent by the weight of the moment—even the kids. The woman sitting beside Miyeon had even shed a few tears of joy. “ _Wherever you may be when Apollo 11 takes off, please spare a thought and a few prayers for our brave countrymen…_ ” The woman nodded earnestly at the pilot’s words, closing her eyes to get an early start on her own prayers. “ _And with that, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to take you back down… It’s truly been a pleasure flying for you all today._ ”

\--

The first thing Miyeon saw once she got off the plane wasn’t any of the many, _many_ giant welcome signs for Florida or even the hundred foot tall Apollo 11 exhibit in the middle of the terminal. No.

What she saw was sharp teeth and a sickly sweet smile.

And what she heard, despite the sea of noise surrounding her, was a familiar taunt.

“Five ways to skin a wolf, my dear sister. Five ways they teach you the second you turn—so you can survive. If a vampire wants to survive, you don’t need blood. You can go hungry for a hundred years and still make it. No, you need to know how to kill the only creature left on this godforsaken earth that can still kill you.”

Miyeon let the crass words wash over her as she walked, every step bringing her closer to the man who uttered such vitriol. He smiled wider once she stopped in front of him, eyes filled with so much deep-seated anger that it could only look like a sneer.

“And you chose to fuck your wolf, Miyeon,” he spat out, voice at a volume that most vampires wouldn’t risk using in such a crowded place. “We didn’t teach you that.”

“Alexei,” Miyeon greeted with a barely-there smile. It was the first thing she’d said in hours and she sorely wished it had been something she actually liked.

“You fucked your werewolf, Miyeon,” he insisted with an incredulity that she’d heard more times than she cared to admit. “Every time I say it I feel the betrayal as fresh as if it happened yesterday. Or maybe it did, who knows what filth you managed to dig up in that English backwater—”

“And if you’re not careful, I’ll be on the next plane back out,” she snarled, cutting him off.

“Oh, but mother wouldn’t like that, would she?”

Miyeon shot him a glare before quickly turning away to look towards where the rest of the crowds were heading. Alexei was dressed in his usual pressed suit and pants, black hair slicked back to perfection. She hated looking at him almost as much as she hated listening to him. “She’s here too?”

Alexei let out a dry chuckle. “You think she’d miss this once in a century chance to see her own daughter?” And then he stepped fluidly to the side, gesturing grandly with his arm for Miyeon to walk ahead of him. “The prodigal child returns and the coven rejoices.”

Miyeon clenched her jaw, but chose not to retort to his obvious taunt. Instead, she started walking towards baggage claim, Alexei’s silent steps following closely behind. They didn’t talk while they waited for her bag, the both of them thankful for the brief respite.

And, to Miyeon’s surprise, there wasn’t a car waiting for them outside the airport. Instead, Alexei flagged down a taxi and brusquely shoved her bag into the trunk before the polite driver could even open his door.

And the second they sat down in the back seat, Alexei hissed the directions at the cabbie. “Take us down to Kennedy and keep your mouth shut. And I don’t just mean not talking— _do not open your mouth_ , not even once.” Alexei paused so his words could sink in. “Breath through your nose if you really have to.” The cabbie looked visibly affronted, but one glance at Alexei’s sadistic gaze in the rearview mirror and he reluctantly nodded his consent.

The taxi took off a bit faster than was safe and only obeyed the speed limit long enough for them to get out onto the highway, but no one complained.

Miyeon caught the cabbie’s eyes in the mirror more than once. He looked away quickly, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself. But she could tell he was curious. He’d probably had his fair share of difficult pickups and was keeping his ears peeled for anything he could report to the cops after he’d dropped them off. Or maybe he’d just bitch about them to his wife when he got home. Miyeon sensed he was probably more of the latter kind.

In any case, it wouldn’t do them any good to say too much that could incriminate—

“There’s a Russian pack that wants to stop Apollo 11,” Alexei revealed with a heavy sigh. He leaned back tiredly in his seat, having forgone his seatbelt. Not that he seemed very concerned with pretending to be human or avoiding suspicion. He spoke as if he and Miyeon were the only two people in the car. “It’s the wolves, always the wolves. We don’t even know what they want to do—blow up the ship? That’s stupid. And expensive. And it gets the media pointing fingers—so maybe they just want to knock a few bolts loose? Who’s to say? Those fucking mutts aren’t known for such precision interference.” He was staring off at nothing, spitting out his words like thoughts. Developing and dropping them at will. And as jarring it was to be suddenly thrust back into his presence, Miyeon was at least happy to know that Alexei hadn’t changed one bit over the last few decades. Still as pompous and arrogant as always. It meant that Miyeon didn’t have to do much for him to readily show his hand. “It’s going to be big. Whatever it is, it will be… They lost the war and the space race and look at what they do, huh?” He let out a sharp laugh, baring his teeth more often than not. “Their blood will be as vile and revolting as ever, but their _deaths_ —oh, their deaths will be sweeter than any wine, my dear sister.”

The taxi suddenly jerked to one side and Miyeon’s eyes shot up to see that the cabbie was now heavily sweating in his seat. His breaths—through his nose as promised—were labored and short.

She could tell that Alexei was about to insult him or worse—so she rushed to say something first.

“And where’s this intel even coming from?” She asked under her breath. “Last I heard the Russian pack was in Alaska.”

“Oh, you’ve missed so much,” he crooned, not dropping the volume of his voice one bit. “Leave the country and dodge a few wars and look at you—still stuck in this grand delusion that the wolves are our friends.”

“Alexei—”

“That’s why you can fuck them without a care in the world, right? Without your conscience fucking you up too—ignorance is a dish best served between your bitch’s legs—”

“ _Alexei, don’t you dare_ —”

“Let me tell you now, _my dear sister_ ,” he was almost bellowing now, voice and presence towering over her own. His fangs glinted menacingly in the Floridian sun. “You can run all you want, but so long as you _exist on this Earth_ , there is nowhere you can go where you will be free from who you really are.” Alexei glared right at her, daring her to challenge him. “And when you forget… we will _find you_ and we will _remind you…_ Always.”

Miyeon didn’t respond or look away from his piercing gaze for a long, long time. And the eerie silence must’ve stretched on between them for more than ten, twenty minutes. Definitely more than that. So when the taxi finally came to a stop a few streets away from the Kennedy Space Center, there was no telling just how long they sat there before Miyeon eventually realized that they’d arrived.

She finally looked away from Alexei to take notice of their driver. But the putrid stench that came from his seat told her far more than his terrified face did. And she could tell the very second that Alexei realized that their human chauffeur had soiled his pants because the vampire’s nose wrinkled in distaste.

And he grabbed the driver’s collar before she could stop him. “ _You fat, disgusting little pig_ —”

“Stop!”

Miyeon suddenly threw all her weight at Alexei and it caught him off-guard enough that he let go of the driver. Unfortunately, the collision was also strong enough to break through the locked door and send them spilling out into the middle of the street. She heard the screeching of cars careening to try and avoid them, and the distant sound of their cabbie crying out in shock. But Miyeon couldn’t focus on any of that.

Alexei was quick to get back on his feet and Miyeon followed not even a second after him. They regarded each other warily, both subconsciously smoothing out their expensive outfits as they waited.

Then Alexei laughed, harsh and loud and more fangs than anything else. He broke their staredown to look at something just past Miyeon’s shoulder. “Look at the pig run. It’s so funny.”

Miyeon didn’t have to look back to know who he was talking about. She could hear the sound of their cabbie’s hammering heartbeat getting further and further away from them. Good.

“You scared off lunch, Miyeon.” And then with an air of faux seriousness, he explained, “He’s a loose end, you know.”

“Because you wanted him to be so you could justify eating him.”

“You are… very right,” he admitted with an easy smile. He slowly straightened up and finally looked around at the mess they’d made in the street as if it was the first time he’d noticed it. The taxi door was deformed beyond recognition and at least four other cars were pulled off to the side of the road. A crowd was starting to form, filled mostly with people confused if an accident or some kind of domestic violence incident had happened. Or both.

Alexei scowled at the onlookers.

“You’re not sloppy, Alexei,” Miyeon murmured as she raked a hand through her hair. The more composed she appeared, the more this would just look like some kind of freak traffic accident instead of what it really was. If Alexei was smart enough, he’d play along. But just to drive home her point, Miyeon added, “What would mother say if she heard about the mess you made?”

Alexei’s eyes lit up with barely restrained anger, but she knew she had him.

She watched as he walked over to her and carefully brushed some dirt off of her dress. “What a terribly irresponsible driver,” he declared for the crowd to hear. “He’ll definitely be hearing from our lawyer. Are you alright, darling?”

Miyeon smiled thinly. “Never better.”

\--

Miyeon stood at the back of the tour group, looking right up at the Kennedy Space Center. She and Alexei had taken to their feet after their little ‘accident’ on the street. They’d nonchalantly joined a tour group and gotten a fairly thorough walkthrough of the main building. From the launch room to the debriefing room to the dressing room where the astronauts would suit up in a few days under careful supervision. Now they were back outside where they’d started, getting the sendoff speech from their dedicated tour guide.

Miyeon wasn’t listening though, and neither was Alexei.

They both started walking off, appearing to any curious eyes as only a simple couple taking an afternoon stroll.

“It’s going to take more than brute force to stop that launch,” Miyeon commented, wrapping her shawl around her shoulders.

“Once they actually put out the rocket, all it will really take is a very strong gust of wind.”

“But like you said… They can’t be too obvious about it.”

“Unless they want to draw attention,” Alexei pointed out.

“Why would they…?” Miyeon stared out at the miles of road leading out onto the peninsula, stretching out all the way to the empty lot that was destined to hold the launch pad. “They’re trying to frame them?” She suddenly asked. “Who would want to frame the Russians? Or the Russian pack? Or… the wolves?”

“Everyone does,” Alexei chuckled. “Even me if I had a good enough plan to do it with. But this isn’t it.”

“And let me guess, you don’t care if they’re trying to frame anyone or not. You just want to kill some wolves.”

Alexei snarled suddenly, a sharp sound that would’ve frightened off any human close enough to hear it. It would’ve even given most vampires pause or made them wary. As it was, Miyeon knew Alexei enough that she barely even flinched. “The only good wolf is a dead wolf,” he hissed at her.

Miyeon rolled her eyes, but then Alexei suddenly pivoted on his feet. He continued walking backwards so he could look right at her. It shattered their ‘casual couple’ veneer, but Alexei wasn’t the kind to maintain a disguise for too long anyway.

“I’m looking for your wolf, you know,” he suddenly declared, baring his fangs in his usual attempt at a smile. The words chilled Miyeon to the core. “We were close, very close before the war too. Because you and your bitch were just so attached at the hip. And sometimes you forgot to cover your tracks, which—well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by how little you’ve managed to retain from what this coven taught you,” he sniffed. “Your complacence is _sickening_ … but it was my blessing.”

And then he suddenly stopped walking, forcing Miyeon to stop along with him. He glared down at her with seemingly renewed hatred. “And we were close, closer than you can ever imagine, my dear sister.”

Miyeon was suddenly grateful for the fact that she was undead. She no longer had a heart that would’ve betrayed her nerves or an unsteady disposition that would’ve caused her to fidget. As it was, all she had to focus on was maintaining eye contact with her coven brother. She would not bend to his rhetoric—she’d held strong for centuries on end, she could do it for another few days.

“But then the war came,” Alexei continued with a sneer. “And instead of joining your family in arms, you fled the continent!” The sudden rise in volume gave away just how much her shirking the war had rankled the coven. Not as bad as the whole dating a wolf thing, but it was close. “I thought I’d punish your wolf then—planned a dozen different ways I’d skin her alive… You know there are five different ways to skin a wolf, but I couldn’t be satisfied with just that for your bitch, so I got creative—”

Miyeon suddenly grabbed the lapel of his jacket, the fabric ripping almost immediately in her vice-like grip. And she snarled, “If this is your way to get me to come back to the coven, you’re more foolish than I thought.”

He batted her hand off his clothes, causing a long strip of his jacket to be torn off in the process. But he just smiled. “So you know we didn’t find her, then. The second you left and she disappears too. It made me so sad you can’t even imagine.” Alexei did not look the least bit remorseful. “Why don’t you just… save us all the trouble… tell me where she is.”

Miyeon dropped the ripped pieces of Alexei’s jacket to the ground. She had half a mind to stomp on it too, but she refrained.

Instead, she simply said, “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know…?”

“No,” Miyeon replied, blinking for the first time in minutes. “We broke up before I left for Europe. I don’t know where she is, who she’s with, nothing.”

“And you expect me to believe that?” Alexei asked, an eyebrow raised in disbelief. “Remember Salem? You came running to us, crying about how she betrayed you. But then not even a century later and you were right back up her—”

“Believe whatever you want Alexei, I don’t care,” Miyeon cut him off. “I’m only here to help out the coven—and only this once. The second that spaceship takes off, I’m gone too.” She finally looked away from his heated gaze and glanced around to make sure they weren’t being watched. “Fix your jacket, you look like an idiot.”

Alexei grinned darkly. “Actually… sometimes I wonder if you really do think me that stupid.”

“You don’t want me to answer that.”

Alexei didn’t listen to her, instead he questioned, “So you mean to tell me… that after centuries of you hiding from this coven with your little mutt, you just decided to pop back in and what? Say hello?” He barked out an empty laugh. “And where oh where was this familial generosity during the war I wonder?”

Miyeon swiveled back to face him. “Fine, don’t accept my help,” she challenged. “I’ll leave right now and you’ll have the honor of explaining my absence to mother.”

Alexei closed his eyes and snorted quietly to himself. And then he slowly tilted his head skywards, chuckling drily at the situation. When he was finished, he took a deep, steadying breath. He carefully peeled off the remnants of his very expensive jacket and unceremoniously threw it to the ground behind him.

Then he looked back down at Miyeon.

“We’re hosting a dinner the night before the launch. Everyone will be there, as should you.”

Miyeon curtly nodded. “I trust one of your many spies will find me before then and give me the address.”

Alexei gave her one last, fang-filled sneer. “I’ll be seeing you, sister.” And then he vanished from where he stood, running off too quickly for Miyeon to care to follow.

She took a deep breath the second he was out of sight.

Miyeon didn’t linger too long after he left. But, unlike Alexei, she waited until she was a few blocks away and in a more covered area before she took off at vampire speed.

The maneuver was so that she wouldn’t draw attention from any curious human eyes.

As for the spies that Alexei undoubtedly had tailing her… well, there really wasn’t any way to shake them once she’d come back into the coven’s sphere of influence. But that was a risk she’d knowingly taken in coming to Florida.

Because there was something here she cared about far more than any coven trickery.

\--

Miyeon rapped quickly and insistently on the door to the apartment. By the time the person on the other side had finally slid back one of the locks, she was all but hammering on the wood.

“Yes?” A small, hesitant voice called out.

“Soojin. It’s me,” Miyeon whispered.

And then in the space of less than a second, the door was flung open, Miyeon was yanked inside and the door slammed shut behind her.

Miyeon stood in the entryway, watching as Soojin slid all of her locks back in place, almost as an afterthought. And then the younger vamp turned towards her unexpected guest.

Miyeon didn’t think she’d feel this… _happy_ seeing her friend for the first time in almost thirty years. She wasn’t usually one to dwell on the passing of time, but… it sure had been a long time. And so she smiled, bright and almost teary.

Soojin looked to be similarly affected, her mouth falling slightly open in shock. But she was definitely smiling too. And she was the first to speak. “You know I honestly thought… that you’d never come back here.”

Miyeon lightly scoffed, “That just doesn’t make any sense, my SooSoo. We’re immortal, remember?”

Soojin eventually managed to close her mouth, her lips stretching out into the biggest smile that Miyeon had ever seen on her friend’s face. “Come here,” she finally said.

“Hmm, I can’t say I really appreciate your tone there, young lady.”

“Come here. Now.”

Miyeon opened her mouth to continue teasing her, but stopped when she saw Soojin’s arms come up invitingly. She wanted a hug. And by god if Miyeon didn’t want it too.

So Miyeon quickly zipped right on over into Soojin’s arms, hugging her friend tight and enjoying every second of it.

Or… she would have enjoyed it if she didn’t smell something… a bit off.

Miyeon took an experimental sniff at Soojin’s hair. Oh yes, there it was. It wasn’t a very fresh scent, but it lingered in Soojin’s clothes and hair like a persistent perfume. Something that she came into contact with regularly and repeatedly… and it smelled like a very, very wet dog.

“So what finally convinced you to come home?” Soojin asked suddenly, separating from their hug and leading them further into the apartment. She opened her fridge and took out a pitcher of dark, red liquid. “I don’t know if you’ve ever had gator blood before, but it’s surprisingly good.”

And that was the kind of sentence that just broke Miyeon’s brain. Any thoughts about suspicious scents completely vanished in lieu of the indignation she felt at Soojin trying to offer her… _alligator blood?_

“You’re making a face right now,” Soojin said with a chuckle as she poured out two glasses full of the liquid.

“And what is my face telling you?”

“That you’ve never tried gator blood before.” And then Soojin pushed one of the glasses into Miyeon’s hand. She ignored the blatant disgust emanating from the older vamp and resolutely took a sip of her own drink. “It’s good,” she needlessly confirmed, smirking at her friend.

“You do know… that I just came from England,” Miyeon pointed out.

“Yes. That’s where your letters said you were staying last.”

“And they had a very robust blood supply system, even during the war.”

“… Must’ve been nice.”

“It was. And as destitute and desperate as any vamp may have been, they’d never have to resort to such—such—”

“Miyeon,” Soojin cut her off after taking a particularly prolonged sip. She licked at her lips, showing off more than she should. “Stop thinking. Just try it.”

Miyeon went to protest again, but Soojin levelled her with the kind of no-nonsense look that was her trademark. And that very effectively shut down any further complaints. So Miyeon sighed and dejectedly looked down into the full glass she held in her hands. She swallowed reflexively. Well… she _was_ kind of thirsty now that she mentioned it.

She hesitantly brought the glass up to her lips, shot Soojin one last rueful glance, then took a very careful sip of the dark liquid.

And…

Well.

Actually…

Miyeon cocked her head, a bit puzzled. “It’s good…” She took a second sip just to make sure her taste buds were still working and smacked at her lips to gather up the aftertaste. “It’s… really good.”

“Oh my god,” Soojin snorted. And then she burst out laughing, doubled over and clutching at her stomach. She had to put down her glass lest she drop it in all the excitement. She eventually straightened back up and wiped at her eyes. “You sound so confused!”

“Well, I mean,” Miyeon started to defend herself but found she had no real response there. Instead she sniffed at the blood in her glass, trying to find some deficiency that would turn her off it. But goddamn it. It even smelled good too. “It’s just not a very _typical_ choice,” she finally settled on with a pout.

“And so what?” Soojin asked, shrugging her shoulders. “It tastes good, right? You’ve lived for so long but sometimes it feels like you’re still… like you’re still holding yourself back sometimes.” She merrily refilled her own glass then reached over to top off Miyeon’s. “If it tastes good, it tastes good. What else is there to say?”

And Miyeon didn’t think that a comment about gator blood would be the last straw for her today, but there it was. She felt an uncontrollable swell of emotion well up inside her and all she could think about was how supportive Soojin was as a friend. How easy it felt to be around the younger vamp compared to the hell of a day she’d had since she got off the plane.

Miyeon had missed this… this easy kind of companionship, devoid of any political or ‘familial’ pressure. And she’d never had something like this in all of her years as a vampire before either. Simple, uncomplicated and—

Oh god, she felt like she was going to cry.

But vampires can’t cry. So instead Miyeon’s sudden emotional crash caused her to shatter the glass in her hands, spilling blood all over her dress and the kitchen floor.

Soojin didn’t jump, but she definitely looked startled.

“Are you… okay?”

Miyeon heaved the heaviest sigh she’d ever sighed. “No.”

Soojin absently nodded, then carefully put down her own glass. “Your dress…” She gestured to the now ruined outfit. “It wasn’t very expensive, was it?”

“It was. Because when have I ever not dressed like some kind of wealthy coven vampire stereotype?” Miyeon suddenly scoffed at herself. “I say I hate covens, but look at me—right back where I started. In fact, it’s like I never even left!”

Miyeon pressed a hand to her forehead, but then belatedly realized that it was covered in blood. She let out a pitiful chuckle and oh fuck, maybe she really was going to cry.

Suddenly she felt a hand at her elbow and she looked up to see Soojin at her side. The younger vamp carefully led her to the sink and ran her hands under some scalding hot water. The blood came off far too easily.

“I’ll get you a change of clothes and then we can talk? Sound good?”

And Miyeon could only nod, staring at her deceptively clean hands.

\--

“So I’m gathering that you didn’t just come back for a social call?” Soojin asked some time later after they’d taken up residence on the couches in her living room.

Miyeon was dressed in some of Soojin’s clothes and not her own that she’d packed in her suitcase. A part of the reason for that was that her suitcase was still in the trunk of a random cab that had been wrecked and left in the middle of the street hours ago. So she technically didn’t have any of her own clothes. But even if she did, she knew that she probably would’ve chosen against wearing them anyway.

Even with the persistent wolf smell in all of Soojin’s clothes.

Miyeon sighed. “I never told you why I left, did I?”

“No… But you weren’t obligated to so I didn’t—”

“But we’re friends, right?” Miyeon suddenly looked up at the younger vamp. Displaying a vulnerability that she’d never showed before. When Soojin enthusiastically nodded, Miyeon continued, “I don’t think I’ve ever told you before but you’re my first… real vampire friend that I’ve ever had. Definitely the only friend I have left now—vampire or otherwise.”

Soojin’s eyes widened in shock. “Wow… really?” But then her brow furrowed in thought. “But you’ve been alive for so long, how…?”

And the truth came flowing right out of Miyeon’s lips. “Because I was born into a coven. One of, if not _the most_ powerful coven in the United States. And they have significant influence overseas as well, so it’s not like you can just… leave. In fact, I think I’m the only one who was ever foolish enough to try.”

Soojin carefully observed her. “What happened?”

“Oh…” Miyeon took a deep, fortifying breath. “It’s too long and depressing a story to go over in full, but… I want to share it all with you… someday.” She shot a troubled smile in Soojin’s direction. “But I can tell you some of it. And I should have done that before I left. Maybe then you wouldn’t have made the same mistake I did.”

Soojin suddenly stiffened in her seat. It wasn’t very noticeable, but Miyeon knew what to look for, plus she had a good idea about what the other girl was probably thinking. She thought this was about her wolf. Whomever had been stinking up Soojin’s clothes was obviously a secret that she wanted to keep. And now the girl was probably worried that she’d slipped up in front of a coven vampire. A coven vampire that was her friend, but it was still a dangerous prospect.

But Miyeon wanted Soojin to know that she could trust her.

“I fell in love with a werewolf,” Miyeon suddenly revealed, absolutely shocking the other girl. “But that wasn’t my mistake. That was the most liberating experience of my undead life... My mistake was thinking that I could live the kind of life I wanted with the coven.”

Soojin slightly relaxed in her seat, but she looked down at her lap. The next question she asked was so quiet that Miyeon had to watch her lips to make out what she was saying. “And you think I’m doing the same? But I’m not… I’m not with the coven.”

Miyeon noted how Soojin didn’t deny the whole loving a werewolf part though.

“No? But they asked you to help defend Apollo 11, didn’t they? That’s why you’re in Florida along with scores of other unaffiliated vamps. Do you think they’ll just thank you and let you on your way when it’s over? No, that’s not how it works.”

Soojin shook her head, glancing back up to Miyeon. “That’s not…” She sighed and admitted, “I was here long before that.”

Miyeon furrowed her brows in confusion. “But why? Why on Earth would you—”

“Because I was worried about you!” Soojin declared in a rush. “You left and no one knew what was going on and I thought something might’ve happened to you in the war. So I came to the East to try and figure it out... I knew you had history over here so… I just wanted to make sure you weren’t dead.”

Miyeon blanched at the worry she could hear in Soojin’s words. God, Miyeon really had fucked up this whole thing hadn’t she? If she hadn’t kept so many secrets from Soojin, then the younger vamp wouldn’t have felt compelled to come looking for information about her. And she wouldn’t have gotten wrapped up in all this coven business.

But wait… something Soojin had said stuck out in her head.

“You said you came this way during the war?” She asked.

“I did,” Soojin nodded.

“But that was years ago. And you’ve been here this whole time? You didn’t mention it any of our letters. Also,” Miyeon continued, raising a finger to make her point, “I was writing you letters the entire time and you thought I was _dead_?”

Soojin huffed, looking away. She crossed her arms. “Up until you walked through my door an hour ago, I had no idea if the ‘you’ in your letters was really you or some foreign agent that had taken you prisoner.”

Wait, what? Miyeon wanted to scoff at how ridiculous that sounded. She’d been just fine in England—not in any more danger than she would’ve been back in America. And she’d been saying as much in her letters. But then she realized that Soojin actually had a good point. The war had been messier than anything she’d seen in a long while. Espionage through bimonthly letters talking about everything from how terrible the weather was to how the cold made her fangs hurt wasn’t completely out of the question.

“God,” Miyeon couldn’t help but chuckle. “You really imagined the worst about me, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t know,” Soojin defended herself, her lips slipping down into a pout. “Now I know that you’ve _actually_ been drinking premium blood in paradise for decades, _just_ like you said in your letters… I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse.”

Miyeon shook her head and sat back in her seat. She carefully folded one leg over the other. Since she was wearing a pair of Soojin’s pants, her foot was completely covered by the excess fabric. She wasn’t that much shorter than the other girl, so Soojin must’ve bought an extra-long pair. These were probably huge on Soojin too. Most likely.

Miyeon cleared her throat. “So… when you wrote a few weeks ago saying you hate how sunny it is in Florida all the time… Was that for me or the foreign agent?”

“Either one didn’t really matter,” Soojin groaned in sudden exhaustion, wiping at the phantom feeling of sweat against her forehead. “I was just tired of being out in the stupid sun every day. Forgive me if I needed to vent to my only friend slash potential war criminal.”

Miyeon chuckled freely at Soojin’s apparent distress, glad for the brief moment of levity in their conversation. And Soojin smiled back at her, letting her have her fun.

Soon enough though, Soojin asked a very intuitive question, “So that’s how you knew I was working with the coven, huh? Because I complained about how hot Florida was?”

Miyeon nodded in confirmation. “The only way I’ve been able to avoid them this long is by keeping tabs on them even when I’m in another continent. Apollo 11 is really big for them. Maybe even bigger and more important than the war was, if I’m being honest. They need this launch to be perfect.”

“Wow…”

“I agree,” Miyeon sighed. “For the undead, they’re a lot more patriotic than you’d think.”

“But if you’re trying to avoid them, then why…”

“Why come to Florida?” Miyeon spread her hands wide with a thin smile and she shrugged. “Because somehow the only friend I have left in this world was about to make the biggest mistake of her life… You join this coven, then you’ll never know peace for the rest of your days.” Miyeon looked sincerely over at Soojin. “That’s why you and I are going to leave here tonight. It won’t be easy, but I know how to disappear even with all the spies they’d have following us.”

Soojin didn’t immediately answer. In fact, she kind of just stared out at nothing for a good few minutes. And then when she finally moved again, she looked wary. Her gaze dropped once again to her lap.

But Miyeon continued on, even though she knew exactly what must’ve been troubling the other girl. “Europe is an option or maybe even the Midwest. Anywhere is good really, so long as we do it as soon as possible.”

“I… I can’t leave,” Soojin finally said.

“Why?”

“Because…”

And Miyeon knew what the real reason was, but she knew she couldn’t push the answer out of the other girl. She stood by her claim that she didn’t regret falling in love with a wolf. But that wasn’t something that every vampire could or would proudly proclaim. Miyeon had been ostracized for years because of it and the only reason she hadn’t been killed centuries ago was because of the high standing she still held in the coven.

Even with all of Miyeon’s many transgressions, mother had never fully turned on her. Alexei on the other hand… he sometimes made her wish that mother had decided to cut her loose all those centuries ago.

But for Soojin who held no such position of favor, this was literally a life or death situation. If the coven found out she was involved with a wolf then… Alexei wasn’t someone known for his mercy.

But Miyeon wanted to help her friend as much as she could. She wanted her to know that she had her back, even now—especially now.

“This wouldn’t have anything to do with that girl you wrote about a few years ago, would it?” Miyeon finally decided to help prod her along. Only slightly though.

Soojin sighed. “Maybe… She’s…” She brought her hands up to cradle her face, her fingers covering her mouth as she stared off again into the distance. And then, she seemed to come to a decision. Soojin nodded to herself and slowly dropped her hands from her face. “I think I love her… No… I know I do.”

“Okay,” Miyeon nodded, smiling gently at her friend.

Soojin suddenly turned to look at her, her face contorting into a mix of disbelief and confusion. “I love her,” she repeated, but with more determination that time. “I love her… She smells like something I can’t even begin to describe because it’s so bad—it’s so bad, Miyeon. But I have to get used to it because I love her and that’s just… that’s just how she is…” Soojin gaped for a moment, then added almost as an afterthought, “She’s a werewolf.”

Miyeon had to stifle her laughter because she could tell that the younger vamp was in genuine distress over her smelly wolf lover. “I’d gathered as much.”

“No, I don’t think you understand,” Soojin said, suddenly full of life as she sat forward to press her point. “I can’t breathe when I’m around her and—I know vampires don’t need to, but I like breathing. But I love her and… It’s all so confusing…”

“I promise I’ll help you out, okay?” Miyeon said, laying a consoling hand over Soojin’s. And then she took on a more serious tone. “But that’ll have to wait a bit. The three of us—me, you and your wolf—we’re leaving tonight.”

Soojin shifted back out of Miyeon’s reach, suddenly looking more pained. “No, Miyeon, you don’t understand. I can’t—I mean, we can’t—”

Miyeon furrowed her brows. “What’s wrong? Is it her pack or something—”

“Yes, yes it’s…”

Soojin groaned in frustration and suddenly took to her feet, pacing back and forth in front of where Miyeon sat. Finally, the older vamp had had enough. She stood up and grabbed Soojin’s hand.

“Tell me—”

“She’s in the Russian pack,” Soojin revealed in a rush. And Miyeon’s eyes widened to an almost impossible degree.

“Oh… my…”

“Kind of,” Soojin rushed to amend, but she didn’t sound very confident in her claim. “It’s a bit like how you’re in the coven, but not really. Something kind of… kind of like that…”

Miyeon just shook her head in a shocked daze, her hand coming up to cover her mouth. “How… How have you managed to hide this from Alexei?” This wasn’t just impossible, it was certifiably insane. “And you’ve known her for years? You’ve been here, in the middle of coven territory, for years?” She looked to Soojin in hopes that the girl would refute at least one of the claims, but she was silent. Looking back at Miyeon with guilty eyes. “ _Are you out of your goddamn mind?_ ”

Soojin winced. “No, we’ve had help. It’s just—”

And like a cherry on top, there was a sudden series of knocks on the front door. They were loud, insistent, and they didn’t stop once.

From Soojin’s expression, Miyeon could tell that whoever was outside wasn’t an invited guest. But Miyeon asked anyway, keeping her voice as quiet as she could. “Who would be visiting you right now?”

“No one,” Soojin breathed out, barely audible. “I’m supposed to meet Shuhua tomorrow, but she never comes here. We know we can’t risk it.” It sounded like Shuhua was the name of Soojin’s wolf, but the person at the door was almost definitely not her.

Miyeon swallowed and made a snap decision. She stepped towards the door, ignoring Soojin’s gestures for her to stop.

“If it’s the coven, then I’ll be fine. If it’s not, then… we’ll worry about that later.”

Miyeon quickly sped over to the door, lingering for a moment as she tried to discern who it could be. But she couldn’t hear anything besides the thunderous knocking and for some strange reason, she didn’t think to try and smell out who it was.

Maybe then she wouldn’t have slipped the locks out with such confidence.

Maybe then she wouldn’t have suddenly yanked open the door as quickly as she did.

“Soojin, Shuhua’s missing! I need your help to—”

The frantic voice of the person on the doorstep cut off as soon as they realized who had opened the door. And as for Miyeon… she couldn’t believe her eyes. So she inhaled a shaky breath through her nose to confirm that yes, this was exactly who she thought it was.

A werewolf.

A left-handed werewolf who had stolen her heart many times over and had refused to give it back.

Minnie was here.

She was here in the territory of the vampire who had made it his immortal life’s mission to track her down and kill her.

Minnie was right here and Miyeon felt cold dread seep into her very bones.

“Miyeon…”

“No.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> meet alexei, you're friendly neighborhood coven vampire who wants to kill all werewolves :D  
> he... does not like minnie lol
> 
> and the salem arc continues with some backstory into miyeon's past  
> maybe some hints about who might be hunting her down...?
> 
> let me know your thoughts down below :)


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